Historical Observations
Similar behavior was observed by ancient scientists such as Aristotle, "The fact that the water has previously been warmed contributes to its freezing quickly: for so it cools sooner. Hence many people, when they want to cool water quickly, begin by putting it in the sun. So the inhabitants of Pontus when they encamp on the ice to fish (they cut a hole in the ice and then fish) pour warm water round their reeds that it may freeze the quicker, for they use the ice like lead to fix the reeds". Aristotle's explanation involved an erroneous property he called antiperistasis, defined as "the supposed increase in the intensity of a quality as a result of being surrounded by its contrary quality".
Early modern scientists such as Francis Bacon noted that "slightly tepid water freezes more easily than that which is utterly cold". In the original Latin "aqua parum tepida facilius conglacietur quam omnino frigida"
René Descartes in his Discourse Premier "One can see by experience that water that has been kept on a fire for a long time freezes faster than other, the reason being that those of its particles that are least able to stop bending evaporate while the water is being heated". Descartes' explanation here relates to his theory of vortices.
Read more about this topic: Mpemba Effect
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