Many people accept it as fact, but according to scientists, cold water will not reach boiling temperature more quickly than hot water, a kitchen myth that may have started to encourage people to cook with cold water, which can contain less impurities.

But under the right circumstances, the reverse phenomenon can occur, and hot water can freeze more quickly than cool water. Part of the reason appears to be that hotter water loses mass to evaporation, and because it has less mass, less energy is needed to freeze it.

That phenomenon was described as far back as 350 B.C. by Aristotle, and is now known as the Mpemba effect, named after Erasto B. Mpemba, a student who noticed it in 1963 while using boiled milk to make ice cream and reintroduced the concept to the scientific literature.

Level: A2