Supercooled Water
By Sujan Patel with 1 Comment
Supercooling occurs because water can exist as a liquid below its natural freezing point if it has no surface or seed on which to crystallize. That is, if there is no rough surface, impurity, or bit of ice to start the crystallization process, water can remain in a liquid state below 0deg Celsius. The inside of a smooth plastic bottle could possibly provide the right environment for this. When it is poured out, however, it encounters something in the bowl that it can form crystals on, and the process begins. Thus, you see the supercooled liquid water pouring out and forming ice instantly when it hits already formed ice crystals, hence the strange “snaking†up of the ice slush. It doesn’t all freeze (thus slush, not solid ice) because when water does freeze, it releases some heat in the process of crystalization (there is more energy present in water at 0deg than in ice at 0deg), and this probably raises some of the surrounding water to above 0 degrees.
that is SO cool and thanks for that it helped in my final exams at uni