In a microwave oven, Coke would heat up faster than water because of the sugar and caramel coloring absorbing the microwave energy and turning it into heat, as opposed to water which lets more of the microwaves through without any interaction. On a conventional stove, gas or electric, both would heat at the same rate because of the same amount of heat being applied to both solutions.
water.
Soil
Milk will heat up faster.
land loses heat faster than H20
no, specific heat will always be 4.16
Freezing rate depends on the surface area, the heat transfer medium, and its temperature. If it is a thin layer (large surface area) of water it would freeze faster than a thick layer (smaller surface area). A liquid heat transfer medium, like liquid nitrogen, would have a higher heat transfer rate than a gas, like air. Lastly, the colder the heat transfer medium, the faster the heat transfer rate, the faster the water would freeze.
The heat from the hot water is transferred to the ice, making the ice heat faster, thus causing it to return to room temperature faster, making it melt faster.
Heat the water.
water!
Assuming that the air and water in your question have the same temperature, ice would melt faster in the water, as there is a greater degree of heat transferance in water due to its greater density.
Because water has a higher freezing point than the aqueous solutions, e.g. diet coke, milk, syrup, and juice as well as the non-aqueous e.g. liquid vegetable oil, you would expect it to freeze faster than any of those liquids because you would first have to cool the liquids down to their freezing points before they would start to freeze. There is a possibility that the vegetable oil would freeze faster under some conditions since its heat of fusion is significantly less than that of the aqueous solutions - it would depend on the temperature you started from.
heat, of course!