[faith0504]

please can anyone help, my horses water tubs are freezing every hour, im topping them up with warm water every hour to break the ice, is there anything else i can do to stop them freezing worried they will be without water all night, or i get up e very hour to keep water supply ice free, its so cold here now

[doganjo]

Can horses have vegetable oil?  If so a little of that helps to keep the water unfrozen.  Hot water freezes quicker than cold apparently so best just to add cold water to their bowls.  But I've tried oil in the ducks and chickens bowls and its working.

[faith0504]

hi doganjo, yes they can have oil thats a good idea thanks for that will give it ago, will also try it in the hens water tomorrow i have been de icing there water every half hour today 

[daddymatty82]

how much veg oil would you put in the water as my pony got a big rubber bucket that is frozen so i will change over and add oil but what amount should i use also im going to do it with our sheep chooks  and maybe rabbit if its allowed

[Womble]

Hot water freezes quicker than cold apparently

Well, hot water will cool down at a faster rate than cold, but the laws of physics say it has to be the cold one that freezes first, as it had less energy in it to start with. Should be an easy enough experiment to set up if anybody wants to test it out!!

[claire]

your horses don't need to take a drink every hour, try to get the ice off it twice a day anyway and the horses can drink then. they can break the ice themselves if they're thirsty.

[doganjo]

Hot water freezes quicker than cold apparently

Well, hot water will cool down at a faster rate than cold, but the laws of physics say it has to be the cold one that freezes first, as it had less energy in it to start with. Should be an easy enough experiment to set up if anybody wants to test it out!!

You're the scientist - you do it

[waterhouse]

I've heard it said that if you float some apples in the water it is less susceptible to freezing tho I can't think of any reason why.

[Womble]

You're the scientist - you do it

LOL! I wonder if there are any research grants available for this sort of thing? A fully funded 2 or 3 year study should just about cover it! 

[sabrina]

I put a ball in the water tubs that my ponies have and this does help as they move it about when drinking.

[ellisr]

I tried the ball but my boy gets it out of the water to play with

[doganjo]

I've tried all sorts of things in my dogs bowls - including bits of polystyrene - nothing works except the oil

[Fergie]

Hot water freezes quicker than cold apparently

Well, hot water will cool down at a faster rate than cold, but the laws of physics say it has to be the cold one that freezes first, as it had less energy in it to start with. Should be an easy enough experiment to set up if anybody wants to test it out!!

Interestingly enough, the staff at New Scientist magazine recently (well, within the past year) decided to test the theory in a controlled situation, and found that the hot water did indeed freeze before the cold water.

There was a flurry of correspondence about the experiment, but I don't think an answer was found.  It remains a bit of a mystery.

John

[tazbabe]

my dad has always said the warm water would freeze more quickly.

i tried the oil trick today, it does indeed work.

[waterhouse]

Because of a thing which used to be called the latent heat of fusion it takes a lot of energy to convert water at 0deg into ice at 0deg.  So when you break the ice in the water trough also remove it to keep the water clearer for longer

Issue 2753 of New Scientist dated 25th March 2010 had an article on the freezing of hot vs cold water, part of which says:

"HOT water sometimes freezes faster than cold water - but why? This peculiar phenomenon has baffled scientists for generations, but now there is evidence that the effect may depend on random impurities in the water.

Fast-freezing of hot water is known as the Mpemba effect, after a Tanzanian schoolboy called Erasto Mpemba (see "How the Mpemba effect got its name"). Physicists have come up with several possible explanations, including faster evaporation reducing the volume of hot water, a layer of frost insulating the cooler water, and differing concentration of solutes. But the answer has been very hard to pin down because the effect is unreliable - cold water is just as likely to freeze faster."