Swaff is sitting at his desk, being cool, when his younger brother Geemiee walks up. Geemiee had recently been practising his (fake) magical powers, trying to turn cheese into more cheese, so he believes he can beat Swaff in anything. He sets up a little competition, the first to get 5 ounces of water to freeze, will be proclaimed the coolest guy in their home.
They set up some rules which are as follows:
- They both can use only normal water that comes out of their stainless steel faucet.
- They both use identical containers.
- They both must use the same freezer, at the same time.
Now, Swaff realizes that he would become less cool if he were to lose. He just doesn’t roll like that. So, how can Swaff have the best chance of winning over Geemiee?
Answer
All Swaff has to do in order to be the winner is use hot water.
Geemiee, being less cool than Swaff, didn’t know that water with a hot average temperature freezes faster than water that is at room temperature. The phenomenon that hot water may freeze faster than cold water is often called the Mpemba effect.
