{"id":17,"date":"2003-03-14T13:38:01","date_gmt":"2003-03-14T18:38:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.richardyoo.com\/blog\/?p=17"},"modified":"2003-03-14T13:38:01","modified_gmt":"2003-03-14T18:38:01","slug":"super-heating-phenomenon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.riggedup.net\/blog\/2003\/03\/14\/super-heating-phenomenon\/","title":{"rendered":"Super Heating Phenomenon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>First it was aluminium foil&#8230; then people started throwing CD&#8217;s in them&#8230; and now, people are putting WATER in microwave ovens and causing mayhem!<\/p>\n<p>Evidentally, this phenomenon known as &#8220;super heating&#8221; is well known &#8212; I dunno about you but I&#8217;ve never had a hot cup of water EXPLODE <a href=\"http:\/\/www.riggedup.net\/funny\/superheating.mpeg\">like this video shows<\/a>.<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nHere&#8217;s the whole email message I got from Susan:<\/p>\n<p>> My 26-year old  son decided to have a cup of coffee. He took a cup of<br \/>\n> water and put it in the microwave to heat it up (something that he had<br \/>\ndone<br \/>\n> numerous times before).  I am not sure how  long he set the timer<br \/>\n> for, but he told me he wanted to  bring the water to a boil.  When<br \/>\n> the timer shut the  oven off, he removed the cup from the oven.<br \/>\n> As he looked into the cup, he noted that the water was not  boiling,<br \/>\nbut<br \/>\n> instantly the water in the cup &#8220;blew up&#8221;  into his face.  The cup<br \/>\n> remained intact until he  threw it out of his hand but all the water<br \/>\nhad flown out<br \/>\n> into his face due to the build up of energy.  His whole face is<br \/>\nblistered<br \/>\n> and he has 1st and 2nd degree burns to his  face which may leave<br \/>\n> scarring.<br \/>\n><br \/>\n> He also may have lost partial sight in his left eye.  While at the<br \/>\n> hospital, the doctor who was attending to  him stated that this a<br \/>\n> fairly common occurrence and  water (alone) should never be heated in<br \/>\n> a microwave  oven.  If water is heated in this manner, something<br \/>\n> should be placed in the cup to diffuse the energy such as a wooden<br \/>\nstir<br \/>\n> stick,tea bag, etc. It is however a much  safer choice to boil the<br \/>\nwater in a<br \/>\n> tea kettle.<br \/>\n><br \/>\n> Please pass  this information on to friends and family.<br \/>\n><br \/>\n> General Electric&#8217;s response:<br \/>\n> Thanks for contacting us, Mr. Williams. I will be happy to assist<br \/>\n> you.  The e-mail that you received is correct. Microwaved  water and<br \/>\n> other liquids do not always bubble when they  reach the boiling point.<br \/>\nThey<br \/>\n> can actually get  superheated and not bubble at all. The superheated<br \/>\n> liquid will bubble up out of the cup when it is moved or when<br \/>\n> something like a spoon or tea bag is put into it.<br \/>\n><br \/>\n> To prevent this from  happening and causing injury, do not heat any<br \/>\n> liquid for  more than two minutes per cup.  After heating, let the<br \/>\ncup<br \/>\n> stand in the microwave for thirty seconds  before moving it or adding<br \/>\n> anything into it.<br \/>\n><br \/>\n> I hope this  helps.<br \/>\n><br \/>\n><br \/>\n><br \/>\n*************************************************************************<\/p>\n<p>><br \/>\n> Here is what our local science teacher had to say on the  matter:<br \/>\n> &#8220;Thanks for the microwave warning.  I have  seen this happen before.<br \/>\n> It is caused by a  phenomenon known as super heating. It can occur<br \/>\nanytime<br \/>\n> water is heated and will particularly occur if the  vessel that the<br \/>\nwater is<br \/>\n> heated in is new, or when heating a small amount of water (less than<br \/>\nhalf<br \/>\n> a cup).<br \/>\n><br \/>\n> What happens is that the water heats faster than the vapor bubbles<br \/>\n> can form. If the cup is very new  then it is unlikely to have small<br \/>\n> surface scratches inside it that provide a place for the bubbles to<br \/>\nform.<br \/>\n> As the bubbles cannot form and release some of the heat that  has<br \/>\nbuilt up,<br \/>\n> the liquid does not boil, and the liquid  continues to heat up well<br \/>\n> past its boiling point.<br \/>\n><br \/>\n> What  then usually happens is that the liquid is bumped or jarred,<br \/>\n> which is just enough of a shock to cause the bubbles to rapidly  form<br \/>\nand<br \/>\n> expel the hot liquid. The rapid formation of  bubbles is also why a<br \/>\n> carbonated beverage spews when opened after having been shaken.&#8221;<br \/>\n><br \/>\n><br \/>\n>(See attached file: superheating.mpeg)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>First it was aluminium foil&#8230; then people started throwing CD&#8217;s in them&#8230; and now, people are putting WATER in microwave ovens and causing mayhem! Evidentally, this phenomenon known as &#8220;super heating&#8221; is well known &#8212; I dunno about you but I&#8217;ve never had a hot cup of water EXPLODE like this video shows.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.riggedup.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.riggedup.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.riggedup.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.riggedup.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.riggedup.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.riggedup.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.riggedup.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.riggedup.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.riggedup.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}