Hot or cold water in the winter?

In school we were taught that hot water freezes faster than cold water. To give the animals cold water would mean a longer time of drinkable water before it freezes in the barn? My dad says that though it is freezing faster because the rate of which the waters temperature changes is greater since the total temperature change is greater given the animals hot water in the winter will result in a larger window of drinkable water. @asklemmygrad

  • 201dberg@lemmygrad.ml
    3·
    20 days ago

    So, many years ago, I worked at a fast food place in highschool and we had a big walk in 0°F freezer. One of my coworkers and a supervisor were debating this whole deal so the filled up two containers of water, one got and one cold, and put them in there.

    Long story short, hot water froze faster. This was before the age of smartphones and such so we couldn’t pull up YouTube and other sources about it, but it can happen but the mechanics behind it are not entirely confirmed. Some theory is that heated water has less dissolved gas that can interfere with freezing, other are about volume either being lost, or the fact that hot water has a greater volume than cold water, either way meaning as it cools, its actually less overall volume of water. There’s other theories. I remember seeing this video about it some time ago but I haven’t watched it in a while.

    https://youtu.be/SkH2iX0rx8U

    Imo, I think it’s a combination of factors and that, evaporation in general will cool the rest of the liquid.Thays literally hot sweat works for humans. Water evaporates which pulls heat from your body. And hot water is gonna evaporated was faster in the cold weather. More evaporation is also reducing the total volume of water.less dissolved gas will allow it to not only evaporate faster but freeze quicker too.

    But doing science at home it’s t too difficult either. Just measure out a cup of cold water from your tap, and a cup of the same hot water you would give to the animals. Set both outside in the same style and size of container, and check them ever 20 minutes or so. Way better and easier that guessing and hoping.

    But all in all, I would also say if you have the option, you should used heated water bowls or put a heating element in their water container. Even a mall fish tank heater can prevent quite a bit of water from freezing. Might not keep it “warm,” but would keep “warm enough.”