Instant-Freeze Water Bottles!

Hi, I'm Steve Spangler, and welcome to DIY Sci. Looks pretty simple, right? It's just water. But water is a fluid, and a fluid will change its properties depending on the container it's in or the energy that's added. For example, boil it, it turns to steam. Freeze it, and it turns to ice. Now, we know how that works. It's just a temperature change, and that's exactly what Newton would use to be able to describe this, right? A fluid changing its viscosity or thickness, right? In this particular case, going from a liquid into a solid with a temperature change. And I'll bet you know what temperature it takes to turn this into a solid. Well, water freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit or 0 degrees Celsius. But there is this weird thing that happens, and it might have happened to you. You might have left a bottle of water, for example, in your car. And you open up the car, and you take the bottle of water out, and it's really, really cold outside. It's well below zero, but it's still a liquid. And as you start to walk away, like magic, it turns into a solid. Like this. And your eyes are not playing a trick on you. It's really a liquid turning into a solid. And I want to show you how to do this purposefully by supercooling the water. Start by making an ice bath. Dump ice into water and add rock salt. The salt lowers the temperature below 32 degrees by lowering the freezing point. There it is right there. Minus 10 degrees Celsius, about 17 degrees Fahrenheit. This is exactly what we need. Now, add the water bottles. For now, it's time to just sit and wait. OK, water, get really cold, but don't freeze. You know you're waiting for a long time when you have to talk to the water. After about 10 minutes, it's time. So if we're successful and we supercooled the water, when we take it out, it'll still be a liquid, but it's well below freezing. It's 17 degrees Fahrenheit or minus 10 degrees Celsius. And just a little jostling, just a little hit like this will create a bubble. And that bubble is enough for the first ice crystal to form. And if that first ice crystal forms, you get a chain reaction. It looks totally cool. All right, let's see if it works. All right, so here we go. It's still a liquid, no problem at all. Let's hit it. Ready? Here we go. Bam, that goes fast. Look at it, here it goes. It's working its way down. Yes, we're right there. That's solid. Look at that, that is solid. See, there it is. Try this little trick. Just get a piece of ice, put it on the plate like this. And now you're going to open up one of the bottles, hoping, crossing your fingers, it doesn't turn to ice just yet. And then you're going to pour it out onto the ice that's there to see if you can form your own little stalagmite. Watch this. Oh, there it goes. Yes, look at this. Look at this, this is, oh, perfect look. Bam, that's cool. Instant ice.