Supercooling of water can be easily studied with a simple apparatus suitable for the student laboratory. We describe such an apparatus and its capabilities. The parameters influencing supercooling include the initial water temperature, as well as the type and temperature of the chilling medium. We correlate the occurrence of supercooling with the ability of the chilling medium to promptly nucleate ice; if it nucleates promptly, the layer of ice crystals formed on the boundary will initiate freezing of the bulk water without supercooling. If the chilling medium is unable to nucleate ice promptly, ice nucleation is delayed and the water supercools. Students can study and compare supercooling of distilled and natural water. Even quite dirty river water may be supercooled by as much as 5 °C.
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April 2016
PAPERS|
April 01 2016
A study of the occurrence of supercooling of water
Kah-Chye Tan;
Wenxian Ho;
J. I. Katz;
J. I. Katz
c)
Department of Physics and McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences,
Washington University
, St. Louis, Missouri 63130
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Shi-Jiang Feng
a)
Electronic mail: [email protected]
b)
Electronic mail: [email protected]
c)
Electronic mail: [email protected]
d)
Electronic mail: [email protected]
Am. J. Phys. 84, 293–300 (2016)
Article history
Received:
March 18 2014
Accepted:
December 24 2015
Citation
Kah-Chye Tan, Wenxian Ho, J. I. Katz, Shi-Jiang Feng; A study of the occurrence of supercooling of water. Am. J. Phys. 1 April 2016; 84 (4): 293–300. https://doi.org/10.1119/1.4939792
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