This is a really old thread. Tonight on TV there was an item
demonstrating what happens to superheated water from a
microwave so I captured a short clip (RM, and an AVI for
Roman ;-). The cup shown had water in it hotter than 100C
but not boiling, as it was in a smooth container. The tip given
was to either not use perfectly smooth container or put
something rough (eg wooden splint) in with the liquid. Although
this is not a fantastically violent demo, it's more than I imagined
it would be. People were interviewed who had the contents
of bowls and cups spray right into their faces and got an
unrequested face peel
http://home.clear.net.nz/pages/joecolquitt/hotstuff.html
{Quote hidden}> Alice Campbell wrote :
>the actual problem is not so much the heating of the water,
>but the nucleation of the bubbles. you know how they
>sometimes 'seed' clouds to make it rain, because there is
>moisture but nothing to condense on? what you have here is
>similar: the water is hot enough to boil, but has nothing ot
>nucleate on if youve filtered it and it hasnt even got a
>lonely little air bubble or speck of dust. any disturbance
>then will cause a cascade of nucleations and the whole thing
>blows.
>So the solution of putting in something to nucleate on is a
>good one. this is one place where judicious sloppiness will
>come out ahead of antiseptic sterile technique. i would
>suggest locating (and scrubbing off) a 'magic pebble' of some
>worthy local stone, reserved for the sacred duty of
>preventing overboils. use of the 'magic pebble' will ensure
>good beer etc.
>alice
> >49 seconds later, I heard a small, muffled, explosion. I turned to
> >see that the door of the microwave had blown open and water
> >was dripping from all interior surfaces of the microwave. The
> >coffee cup was intact. My wife, who was 2 rooms away, heard
> >the explosion. She wanted to know "What the hell happened?"
--
http://www.piclist.com hint: The list server can filter out subtopics
(like ads or off topics) for you. See http://www.piclist.com/#topics
