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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!alice!jj
From: jj@alice.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.cooks
Subject: boiling cold water
Message-ID: <3707@alice.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 10-May-85 13:53:55 EDT
Article-I.D.: alice.3707
Posted: Fri May 10 13:53:55 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 11-May-85 02:40:24 EDT
Organization: New Jersey State Farm for the Terminally Bewildered
Lines: 51


OK, we've been through the "hot water/cold water freezes faster"
routine, we've been through the "water heater mineral" routine
(several times, in  fact), and we're going through the
"cold water boils faster" routine right now.

In case anyone cares, I have tried all three experiements:

In the first, cold water easily outfroze hot water when both were
put in identical trays in opposite ends of a freezer with nothing
else inside it.  (they were both arrayed front to back,
and the opening/closing of the freezer was clearly not
likely to affect either one more than the other.) The freezer has
no blower, and the coils are in the bottom, thus they affect
each tray equally.   A letter in
Scientific American covered this subject a few years ago,
noting that that it necessarily took more heat to
freeze hot water, but that hot water made some refrigerators
turn on sooner, thus speeding the freezing process.  Putting both
in the freezer at the same time negates the effect of the refrigerator
duty cycle.

In the second, I WEIGHED my old water heater when I got rid of it
(It was dead, and I had put in a new one in a different location...)
and it weighed several pounds more than its original shipping weight,
which requires it to be heavier when removed than when installed.  That more or
less proves that over its lifetime, it had minerals precipitated
OUT into it, thus leaving less total minearl content in the hot water.

In the third, practiced after lunch with a microwave oven,
hot water boiled much faster than cold water.  Each was put into
the oven alone, and the time to boiling was measured.  Equal amounts
of water were used for both hot and cold water, and the
same container was used. Both times, the container was put
in the middle of the oven.  The cold water was, in fact, put into
a slightly warm container, thus giving it a slight advantange, so
if any bias existed, the cold water was favored.

So much for these three old (and well known) folk tales.  Can we talk about how
to make good Samosa and Dhosa's now.  Pleeeeze?

I suppose that net.physics could be a home to these discussions,
they certainly don't relate to cooking, except in that
the cold water you use for tea and coffee has more disolved
air, and tastes better as a result.
-- 
TEDDY BEARS ARE OPINIONATED! AFTER ALL, SOMEONE HAS TO BE RIGHT!
"Then one said to the other, I think we must be gone,
We'll leave a present for our friend before me move along..."

(ihnp4/allegra)!alice!jj