Science Competition

I discover in The Times this morning that a science competition has been running to explain why a beaker of boiling water freezes more quickly than one of cold. It seems that science has only recently accepted this fact of common experience, and no one is sure why. They had expected about 200 entries, but received over 20,000. Therefore (as from mid-day today), they are inviting visitors to their site to help them choose the winner from a mass of songs, poems, dissertations of all sorts. Too late for the comp', I offer my humble solution here. The website, should you want to to take a peek, is at www.rsc.org/mpemba-competition/

Imagine two roads side by side,
a motorway, a country lane,
the cars are running parallel
but at vastly different speeds.
On the highway and the byway,
both at the same time,
we find a driver fluttering his brakes.

On the highway and the byway
the cars behind brake hard.
Those on the country lane slow down,
but on the motorway, Oh dear!
There's chaos and confusion
and prangs and bangs galore.
They're frozen to a stop.

Now think of matter for a moment.
(Which matter doesn't matter much)
It's mostly space, and in that space
are vehicles - are particles - 
which chase each other round.
It's temperature that sets the pace.
And as for cars on motorways...

too rapid de-acceleration
sets in train a similar confusion. 
The particles collide and jam.
They judder to a freezing stop!
(Okay, they may not judder,
they may not even jam. 
This 'ere's poetry, not science Ma'am!)