Page "Mpemba effect" Paragraph 1

Similar behavior was observed by ancient scientists such as Aristotle, " The fact that the water has previously been warmed contributes to its freezing quickly: for so it cools sooner.

Hence many people, when they want to cool water quickly, begin by putting it in the sun.

So the inhabitants of Pontus when they encamp on the ice to fish ( they cut a hole in the ice and then fish ) pour warm water round their reeds that it may freeze the quicker, for they use the ice like lead to fix the reeds ".

Aristotle's explanation involved an erroneous property he called antiperistasis, defined as " the supposed increase in the intensity of a quality as a result of being surrounded by its contrary quality ".