I was at a house warming not too long ago. The host of this party said one of the dumbest things to me, and I had a very very hard time keeping my know-it-all (yes I know I can be a know-it-all, but I swear I know I don't know everything) mouth shut and not correct him in his own home. Man it was hard! Know why? Once I paraphrase what he said I hope you'll understand.
It went down kind of like this:
Some guy-"Hey George*, we're out of your famous margaritas!"
George-"Oh! I'll take care of that right now! Oh (poo)! I'm out of ice cubes." George starts running the HOT water from the tap to make ICE CUBES. Then he says something like this... "Did you know hot water freezes faster than cold or room temperature water and cold water boils faster than hot water or room temperature water?"
Oy! My brain about exploded with the illogical nonsense that just came out of that man's mouth! I'd heard such silliness before, but only from silly people that you wouldn't expect to know better. Like those girls that spent high school hanging out at the mall and the guys that thought they were great. Those people saying something like that...well, I'm just not too surprised when that happens. But this guy is a smart one. I was shocked. Shocked I tell you!
His reasoning for why this is the case? The water molecules have to work harder to get from one extreme to the other. And I guess that would be true, if the molecules had any intention of being hot rather than cold and vice versa. Thing is, they don't. They just want to be themselves. That's they're one and only intention. They don't care if you want them to freeze or to get so hot they start dancing around. They're totally zen about such things. Just let it happen-that's their motto! So, they're just not going to work any harder to be hot or cold.
The truth is, the only thing doing extra work is the heat/cold source. In the case of boiling ice cubes (doesn't that even just sound silly?!), that will mean an extra few pennies on your energy bill. That's because it will take more time to go from one extreme to the other. In the case of freezing boiling water, you'll have to wait longer for the ice cubes for the famous margaritas. Basic physics people.
2 weeks later, my hero's The Myth Busters aired a debunking of this craziness. On an unrelated note, they also explained in a different episode exactly why I close the toilet lid when I flush.
*Name has been changed to protect the identity of this usually intelligent person.
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