"Phil Kangas" wrote in message
....
"Phants" wrote in message

snipped

... The temp can go down into the upper twenties and the water
in the pails is not frozen but all it takes is the slightest
movement
and the water crystallizes completely to the bottom!
Phil

Here's that link again:
http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physic...hot_water.html


Thanks for the link...

I have not seen this happen but have heard about it twice before.

I have watched ice form - it takes patience... What I saw, several
times, was a long straight line on the surface of the water form very
suddenly..! It actually was several stright lines, intersecting... And
it happened so fast that I did not actually "see it" happen, it was just
suddenly there...

The phrase that interested me in your description is: "crystallizes
completely (to the bottom)" and the description on that page reinforces
the accuracy of your descriiption. Snipped and edited section:

Since the precise time of supercooling is inherently unpredictable,
many experiments have chosen to measure not the time for the
sample to actually become ice, but the time for which the sample's
equilibrium ground state is ice -- that is, ...

The mention of "equilibrium" and "ground state" while it is still water,
not ice though colder than required for ice, is actually what you state,
and this may be the reason that the "precise time of supercooling is
inherently unpredictable" - it hasn't "become ice" yet...

Maybe high speed and highly magnified photography...?
Now I have a theory for this but I am not a physicist and I might be all
wet... :-} but if you like, I will post it ...

JHbs