Super cooled liquid water

I recently remember from back in highschool that water can be cooled below its freezing point and still stay a liquid, but I forgot how it happened, I think atmospheric pressure had something to do with it.

I checked google but couldn't find too much about the process except that it occurs in the clouds. Pure water suspended in air wont freeze until -40c, but will freeze if agitated or comes into contact with sold particles that are of a ice/cyristillian structure.

http://www.indiana.edu/~geog109/topics/clouds/clouds.pdf

I didn't see anything about it in the forums and was curious if it was even possible to recreate w/o $20,000 equipment involved.

if u could it would probably be cheaper to use Ln2 cooling, then again condensation would be a big problem...regular h20 cooling is more than adequate for most jobs

WELCOME TO THE FORUMS!!

If you could even do it you would probably have a great amount of condesation. Regular H2o is fine for most people so you should probably 1st try it then go to some other extreme cooling.

I think lower pressure would make it have a lower freezing point. I know it lowers the boiling point, I'm sure it could do the same for freezing. Plus it jives with your cloud thing, the pressure in the upper atmosphere is alot lower.

Doesn't seem reasonable to run water cooling in a vaccum though... Just mix in some antifreeze and buy lots of ice or a mini fridge/freezer. 1:1 antifreeze to water is good to -40 C if I remember right (I grew up in Chicago, antifreeze is a must!).

--Illah

Dredged out of the dark receses of school

I do seem to remember something about there has to be a neclus (dirt, sand, minerals, other impuritys, etc) for the ice crystals to form around. IF that's true, I don't think you could ever get the system that clean. Good luck!

I saw a demonstration of theis effect on the Discovery channel a few years ago. Using high purity (they said it like it was somhow better than distilled) water, somone put a sensor in the beaker and it measured -5c or thereabouts.

Then they added a pinch of salt and the whole beaker freoze over in less than a second.

The phenomenon works because the glass of the beaker does not have a crystaline structure. Adding anything that allows the water molecules to organize (the metal in your WB comes to mind) causes crystals to form.