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That sounds bad

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Buddabing:
Not really. Water can be heated above boiling but it becomes unstable.

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ChadTower:

In the Why is it possible to heat water above its boiling temperature? the explanation is very, very similar to what I described.  It does say that the water can sit above 100c until that energy is released, but it doesn't say how far.  When it starts to give numbers they don't go above 101c and instead describe the amount of energy needed to accomplish that.  While 101c is technically superheated, it's still going to burn you less than steam at 100c because of the lower density of the liquid vs how much more surface coverage you get from steam.

boykster:
Yep, 101c is about the threshold for superheating.  The damage/danger is less about it being "so hot" but more about the abruptness of the conversion from liquid to gas and the violence of the conversion.  Unlike a slow boil which builds gradually, its an instant one, converting a large portion of the water to steam in a very short period of time.

I don't know which would "burn more" -> the liquid water is much denser than the steam so would carry a much larger amount of heat energy per unit volume, but the steam could definately contact more surface area more quickly, but last a lot less time as it is more volatile and would be dispersing.

 :dunno

ChadTower:

Is it converting all at once or are all of the disparate converted molecules suddenly finding each other and gaining enough volume to burst upwards all at once?

Ed_McCarron:
Its all ready to boil.  Give it a start and a big chunk of it flashes to steam.  The wavefront moves through the water PDQ.  Its not instantaneous, but might as well be.  If the phase change didn't suck so much heat energy out of the water, it'd probably all convert.

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