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| Erasto Mpemba |
The Mpemba effect, named after Tanzanian
student Erasto Mpemba, is the assertion that warmer water can freeze faster
than colder water. Although there is anecdotal support for the effect, there is
no agreement on exactly what the effect is and under what circumstances it
occurs. There have been reports of similar phenomena since ancient times,
although with insufficient detail for the claims to be replicated.
The phenomenon seems contrary to thermodynamics,
but a number of possible explanations for the effect have been proposed.
Further investigations will need to decide on a precise definition of
"freezing" and control a vast number of starting parameters in order
to confirm or explain the effect.
In 10 January 2013 The RSC (The largest organisation in Europe for advancing the chemical sciences.
Supported by a worldwide network of members and an international
publishing business, our activities span education, conferences, science
policy and the promotion of chemistry to the public.) announced that Croatian Nikola Bregovic has won its
worldwide competition to find the best explanation of the famed Mpemba
Effect, by which hot water freezes faster than cold water.
In a
live video link from its London office to Zagreb, the RSC declared his
submission the best of 22,000 received after the competition was set up
last summer.
In London to make the announcement was Erasto Mpemba,
the Tanzanian who discovered the effect 50 years ago this year when a
schoolboy.
His discovery was scorned at first but he pressed his
case with Denis Osborne, a British physics lecturer in Tanzania, and
they went on to co-write a paper on the effect published in 1969.
The
phenomenon has been known since Aristotle failed to explain it and all
persons trying to sort it out since have been defeated.
Nikola,
who will get a £1,000 prize, works at the Laboratory of Physical
Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry of the University of Zagreb.
He said: "I finished Gymnasium in Cakovec, small town in the north of Croatia, and studied chemistry in Zagreb.
"Almost
immediately after receiving my BSc diploma in 2009 I started working as
research assistant in the Laboratory for Physical Chemistry at the
University of Zagreb, the same lab I did my diploma.
"Thereby I started working on my PhD thesis in the field of supramolecular chemistry.
"Getting this job was fantastic for me, since this enabled me to follow my passion for science and also be involved in teaching.
"My
friend Ivan-Goran sent me an e-mail with the link about the contest
preceding the words 'This might be of interest to you...'. Needless to
say, I was immediately intrigued and started to read about Mpemba effect
and soon conducted the first experiments.
"I was very lucky to be
in a very open and friendly environment and I am thankful to my mentor
Professor Tomisic who encouraged me to proceed with the investigations
along with my other work, and didn't mind me using any of the equipment
in the lab.
"Of course my other close colleagues and friends
participated in numerous discussions on the subject, some even allowing
me to expand the instrumentation and helping me designing the
experiments in the process, thus bringing me step by step closer to the
solution of the problem.
"It was really interesting to observe
how stunned people were when I was telling them about the Mpemba effect,
and how easy it was to awake a scientist in most of them when
discussing the matter. I must also say that some of them believed in my
work much more than I did myself. These were of course my parents and my
love Vesna.
"I was stunned by the scope this project of the RSC
took and was really glad to find so many people all over the world were
interested and participated in it. This really pointed out the power of
human curiosity and their urge for understanding the world around them.
"I
will spend the prize money wisely. Firstly, this award deserves a
celebration with all people that were beside me and after this, I think
there will be some left for a trip or two to the mountains or a river in
the spring if we find the time."
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