Last night I exploded water. Luckily my burns were VERY insignificant, but it was scary/interesting just the same.
Last night I was heating water to warm Lizbeth's milk in. After heating it for two minutes (which looking back was way too much), I took out the mug and set the bag of milk into the mug. Instantly the water exploded, shooting up my arms and across my face. Luckily I was wearing my glasses (covered with water droplets) and not holding Lizbeth. The exploded water covered at least a three foot diameter. So weird!
Apparently, there is an interesting phenomenon when you microwave water. If the mug/glass you microwave it in is very new and has no imperfections, the surface tension is so perfect that it can get way above boiling temperature without beginning to boil. So when something does finally interrupt the perfect balance, the pressure is so high that it "explodes".
Of course my husband, after finding that I was okay and making me splash cold water on my face for awhile, stated he wished he had been in the kitchen to observe this strange occurrence!
He then looked up the science on snopes. Click on the link to learn more if you're interested.
http://www.snopes.com/science/microwave.asp
1 comment:
Alton Brown talks about that on his cooking show... all you have to do to make sure that doesn't happen again is to put a skewer or a chopstick (which I am sure you have plenty of) in the glass of water while in the microwave to break the tension!!! I do it evertime i boil water in the microwave even when I know the glass has some inperfections! It's scary! Glad your okay!
Post a Comment