Something we've all been dying to know, I'm sure. I've conducted at
least one experiment to this effect at a party a couple years ago..
which was unsurprisingly unconclusive. (Mostly because we had a lot to
drink and may have mixed up the hot/cold ice cubes!)
The Mpemba effect is the surprising phenomenon whereby hot water can,
under certain conditions, freeze faster than cold, even though it must
pass the lower temperature on the way to freezing. However, this can
be explained with evaporation, convection, supercooling, and the
insulating effect of frost."
Here's a more detailed explanation
Posted by brettblog at January 25, 2005 02:52 PM