Is it true that hot water makes ice cubes faster than cold water?

     Thinking back to my science class days, I can remember hearing that water that is hot freezes quicker than water that is cold.  At first, it sounded quite unbelievable, but after some thinking, it did seem to hold water (pun intended).  Water molecules are spread out more and moving faster in the state of a gas than water as a liquid. Molecules that are spread out would have a good chance to be affected by the cold than molecules closer together.

     Now, that is using my limited knowledge and terminology.  There are actually many ideas as to why this occurs.  This phenomenon has a name (the Mpemba effect) as well as a very interesting history.  One source of this additional information is here.

     I have come up with a possible exception though.  Why was the water cold?  What if the water was not originally cold but cold because it was further along in the freezing process than when the hot water was poured into the second ice cube tray?  Exception or no exception, I imagine it may be possible to do things just right, you can start your ice cubes at two different times and have all of them finish at the same time.

Disclaimer: Enormous amounts of water can be wasted if a lot of people begin running their taps until hot water pours out just to have “warmer (than tap water temp) water” for slightly faster ice cube formation.  Add to that the wasted energy caused by heating the water only to cool it down again.