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SCIENCE

The Claim

Water can simultaneously boil and freeze under specific pressure conditions.

The Short Version

The claim is scientifically accurate. At water's triple point (~0.01°C and ~611 Pa), solid, liquid, and gas phases coexist in equilibrium, meaning the conditions for both boiling and freezing are simultaneously met. This is confirmed by NIST, peer-reviewed research, and multiple academic sources. The minor caveat: "simultaneously boil and freeze" slightly overstates the drama — it's thermodynamic equilibrium coexistence, not necessarily vigorous concurrent boiling and freezing — and the required pressure is just 0.6% of normal atmospheric pressure.

Caveats

  • The required conditions are extremely specific: ~611 Pa (~0.006 atm), roughly 0.6% of normal atmospheric pressure — this is a laboratory phenomenon, not something encountered in everyday life.
  • "Simultaneously boil and freeze" is colloquially vivid but technically refers to thermodynamic equilibrium where all three phases coexist; in lab demonstrations, the transitions can appear sequential rather than dramatically concurrent.
  • This applies only to pure water; dissolved solutes shift the triple point conditions.

The Receipts

  1. SI Units – Temperature

    National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

  2. Vapor Pressure of Water at Its Triple Point - PMC

    PMC (PubMed Central)

  3. Triple Point of Water | Definition & Value | nuclear-power.com

    nuclear-power.com

  4. Triple Point of Water - AVS.org

    AVS.org

  5. Phase diagram of water and ice - Statistical Physics Group

    Statistical Physics Group

  6. Freezing point depression and boiling point elevation: the effects of solutes and of pressure

    University of New South Wales Physics Animations

  7. Phase diagrams

    Khan Academy

  8. What Is the Triple Point of Water?

    Fluke Corporation

  9. 1386: "Water Can Boil and Freeze at the Same Time" - Interesting Things with JC

    Interesting Things with JC

  10. Triple Point of Water

    UCSC Physics (YouTube)

+ 7 more sources — see the full list on Lenz

Filed Under

water

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