OSDev.org

So, I was surfing Wikipedia last night, and I somehow managed to get from enamel to supercooling. Then, somewhere, I found a link to a Youtube video of someone messing with supercooled water. I have decided I must try this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe8vJrIvDQM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGpNhBPYNfs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4g1BDpU7ZQo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSPzMva9_CE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lISK1YFcZBM

Physics is (are?) awesome!

I considered putting a rickroll in there but was too lazy to.

It seems like it would be really hard to do. You need completely pure water, and very good control over cooling.

Some of those videos also look kind of fishy - the bottle should expand significantly as the water freezes, but it doesn't. It may actually be supersaturated sodium acetate solution, sometimes found on youtube by searching "warm ice".

Edit: take a look at this and compare to the other videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ArVXMw0ryY

I came in here expecting either a discussion on the ultimate laptop cooling system or a discussion on superfluid crap. Instead, five REALLY COOL (heh, sorry for the pun) video links.

Great find!

Unfortunately all I have access to ATM is regular tap water, which is nowhere near pure enough to get this working. I think next time I go to the store I'll buy a bottle of Ozarka water since it's very common around here and cheaper than the Fiji I saw in a couple of the videos.

That third and fourth one was really cool

I tried it myself with a standard HEB brand bottled water, and it worked. Too bad no one else was around to see it, and of course stupid me had to go and touch the ice, getting enough foreign material in the water to keep me from doing it again.

How do you do this without the "hot ice" technique and without it snowing outside? lol

I think you can do it in a regular freezer.

although technically chemistry and not physics (hydrogen bonding if you want to do your research - I still don't see why i was kicked out of my chemistry class), it is quite interesting.

apparently, you need to put an unopened bottle of the purest water you can find (Fiji water is the best according to most people) in your freezer for roughly 2 and a half hours (time may vary). when you take it out, it should still be liquid. simply just hit the bottle hard, or open and drop a bit of ice into the water to instantly freeze it.

I would try this, but I'm too lazy... maybe sometime in the near future, if i remember to.

Cheers,
James.

Shaking or hitting it is probably best, since once it's frozen you can thaw it out and do it again without going to buy another bottle of water. The one I used had some additives in it (I threw away the label so I can't remember exactly what), but it still worked by leaving it in the freezer for a while. Seeing a bottle of liquid water outside during the summer in Texas isn't as weird as seeing a liquid bottle of water outside during the winter in Illinois, but watching a bottle of water freeze before your eyes anywhere is awesome.