Mpemba effect

English

Etymology

Named after Tanzanian student Erasto Mpemba, who published on the topic in the 1960s.

Noun

the Mpemba effect

1. The supposed tendency of warmer water to freeze more quickly than colder water.
   • 2012, Elizabeth H. Oakes, Heat and Thermodynamics, Infobase Learning, →ISBN, page 38:

     Scientists as yet have been unable to fully explain the mechanism behind the Mpemba effect. It is a combination of a variety of heat transfer methods, and those combinations change under different conditions of water and […]