When does hot water freeze faster then cold water? A search for the Mpemba effect

Abstract

It is possible to consistently observe hot water freezing faster than cold water under certain conditions. All conditions except the initial temperature of water specimens must be the same and remain so during cooling, and the cold water must supercool to a temperature significantly lower than the temperature to which the hot water supercools. For hot water at an initial temperature of >≈80 °C and cold water at <≈20 °C, the cold water must supercool to a temperature of at least ≈5.5 °C, lower than the temperature to which hot water supercools. With these conditions satisfied, we observed initially hot water freezing before the initially cold water 28 times in 28 attempts. If the cold water does not supercool, it will freeze before the hot water because it always cools to 0 °C first regardless of the initial temperatures.