Why does water freeze at 0 degrees?

Answer 1

Wow, that's a pretty freaky coincidence, that the freezing point of such a common substance just happens to be exactly 0 degrees, huh? Actually, the truth is that it's not a coincidence at all: it's because Anders Celsius defined his temperature scale using the freezing and boiling points of water, setting them at zero and one hundred degrees respectively.

Answer 2

It does not freeze because it is zero degrees.

It freezes because there is little enough heat in the surrounding atmosphere that the heat in the water radiates away, making it a solid called "ice".

When Gabriel Fahrenheit invented a thermometer to respond to heat fluctuations in the atmosphere, he recorded the water freezing at 32 degrees, based on his scale.

Later, Anders Celsius came up with a more logical system, and invented a scale in which when water froze it would show "zero", and when it boiled, it would show 100.

Answer 3

Water freezes at 0 degrees Celsius because this is the temperature at which its molecules slow down enough to form solid ice lattice structures. At this point, the thermal energy is not enough to overcome the intermolecular forces holding the water molecules together in a solid state.