Is it possible that if one puts equal volumes of water at 99^oC and 20^o C in two vessels of same material and dimensions in a freezer at -15^oC, that the hot water will freeze before the cold water?

If newton's Law of cooling applies then it is impossible .

But the above solution assumes that both the water are pure . Otherwise (e.g. presence of NaCl etc in one of the vessel  ) the result may be different

well how cum this be true if we have identical material in both and in identical conditions......

shud be impossible

yes its true that hot water will cool at a much fastyer rate than the other par will not be cooled quicker than the other

logically thnking .... the hot water has at some point to pass thru the same state as the other one for sure... so after that it will undergo same thng that the other one does... so this is not possible

dun know if some higher theory is involved....

Cheers!!!

See this:

http://library.thinkquest.org/C008537/cool/freeze/freeze.html

I don't believe that these small factors mention in that site can make enough of a difference. Thats why I asked here. I still believe cold water will freeze first.