Re: Shake some supercooled water and you get ice, why?

On Feb 18, 8:22 am, andy everett <vze2q...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

While in my father's cold garage I noticed a bottle of water that was
unfrozen. Knowing that the average temperature in the garage should have
averaged well below freezing I was surprised that the water was
unfrozen. I picked up the bottle examined it and set it down and went
back to work. Moments latter I looked at the bottle and was surprised to
find it about 80% frozen (from this fact I should be able to determine
its past temperature?).

Now that I think of it I have noticed the same effect with canned soda.

I have searched Google and can't find a link that will explain the
physics, why gentle motion is enough to upset an unstable equilibrium.

Can anyone point me to an appropriate link or give a quick explanation?

"The Freezing of Supercooled Water", N. Ernest Dorsey, Transactions,
American Philosophical Society, Volume 38, Part 3, 1948

<http://tinyurl.com/2mwvzv>

or

<http://books.google.com/books?
id=XFoLAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA283&lpg=PA283&dq=supercooled+mechanical
+agitation&source=web&ots=kT2gLNSP2y&sig=NQXztcKgQTEcxs5IzmydDQGvvyE#PPA247,M1>

Google, all is forgiven!

I was going to make some glib remark about mechanical agitation
promoting nucleation, but that's really nothing more than repeating
your original observation, along with some buzzwords.

I don't know if anybody has elucidated a detailed mechanism since 1948.

.

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