Supercooling

HiI was getting water from the cooler and it came out as water. However, as soon as it touched my stainless steel jug (room temperature), it turned into a gel-like icy slush. The water in the jug was murky. Is it because there are chemicals in the bottled water?orIs it because it was at the end of the cooler - finished bottle had to be replaced. and why was it gel-like?Thanks.Aggie
- Aggie
Perth, WA, Australia

This is a classic case of supercooled water being nucleated by contact to start partial freezing. It always goes to slush. Slush tends to seem gel-like. It's possible, however, that there were also some polymers in the water that made it a little more gel-like than usual. Many of our readers have noticed this supercooled behavior, so we have lots of discussion about it: https://van.physics.illinois.edu/qa/listing.php?id=1618. We explain, for example, why you get slush and not solid ice.

Mike W.

(published on 01/21/2016)