{"id":3534,"date":"2012-01-24T09:45:35","date_gmt":"2012-01-23T22:45:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/?p=3534"},"modified":"2012-03-21T09:14:28","modified_gmt":"2012-03-20T22:14:28","slug":"ask-us-why-is-it-dangerous-to-heat-water-in-the-microwave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/science\/ask-us-why-is-it-dangerous-to-heat-water-in-the-microwave\/","title":{"rendered":"Ask Us: Why is it dangerous to heat water in the microwave?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_3535\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"width: 605px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3535\" title=\"microwave\" src=\"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/microwave.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"605\" height=\"375\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Water becomes unstable if superheated in a microwave. Image: Shutterstock<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>Could your cup of coffee burn you?<!--more--><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There have been reports of people being injured when using a microwave to boil water. This is because water heated in a microwave oven can be heated above its normal boiling point (superheated).<\/p>\n<p>In an average kitchen, water will boils at 100 degrees Celsius if there is a bubble of steam or air present. But in the absence of bubbles, the water can become superheated above 100 degrees. This occurs because, unlike a filament that heats the kettle or saucepan, microwaves pass through the cup and heat the water directly, causing it to become hotter than its container.<\/p>\n<p>Heating the container will cause a small amount of localised superheating, initiating boiling (bubbling) in a small area and stirring the water. Microwave containers are usually smoother than kettles or saucepans, so bubbles of air do not cling to the sides and the water doesn&#8217;t boil, causing it to become unstable.<\/p>\n<p>According to scientists at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.animations.physics.unsw.edu.au\/jw\/superheating.htm \" target=\"blank\">University of New South Wales<\/a>, one litre, superheated by one degree, can suddenly produce approximately three litres of steam. This will cause water to boil vigorously and explode out its container.<\/p>\n<p>The water can also explode if you add a powder, such as coffee, or an object to stir it.<\/p>\n<p>Got a burning science question?<\/p>\n<p>Send us your questions to <a href=\" letters@scienceillustrated.com.au \" target=\"blank\">letters@scienceillustrated.com.au<\/a>. If we publish the answer on our website or in the next issue of Science Illustrated you could win amazing prices!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Could your cup of coffee burn you?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,39,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ask-us","category-physics","category-science"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3534"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3534"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4219,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3534\/revisions\/4219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}