A 26-year old man decided to have a cup of coffee. He took a cup of water and put it in the microwave to heat it up (something that he had done numerous times before). I am not sure how long he set the timer for, but he wanted to bring the water to a boil. When the timer shut the oven off, he removed the cup from the oven. As he looked into the cup, he noted that the! water was not boiling, but suddenly the water in the cup 'blew up' into his face. The cup remained intact until he threw it out of his hand, but all the water had flown out into his face due to the build up of energy. His whole face is blistered and he has 1st and 2nd degree burns to his face which may leave scarring.

He also may have lost partial sight in his left eye. While at the hospital, the doctor who was attending to him stated that this is a fairly common occurrence and water (alone) should never be heated in a microwave oven. If water is heated in this manner, something should be placed in the cup to diffuse the energy such as a wooden stir stick, tea bag, etc.., (nothing metal).

General Electric's Response:

Thanks for contacting us, I will be happy to assist you. The e-mail that you received is correct. Microwaved water and other liquids do not always bubble when they reach the boiling point. They can actually get superheated and not bubble at all. The superheated liquid will bubble up out of the cup when it is moved or when something like a spoon or tea bag is put into it.

To prevent this from happening and causing injury, do not heat any liquid for more than two minutes per cup. After heating, let the cup stand in the microwave for thirty seconds! before moving it or adding anything into it.

Here is what our local science teacher had to say on the matter: 'Thanks for the microwave warning. I have seen this happen before. It is caused by a phenomenon known as super heating. It can occur anytime water is heated and will particularly occur if the vessel that the water is heated in is new, or when heating a small amount of water (less than half a cup).

What happens is that the water heats faster than the vapor bubbles can form. If the cup is very new then it is unlikely to have small surface scratches inside it that provide a place for the bubbles to form. As the bubbles cannot form and release some of the heat has built up, the liquid does not boil, and the liquid continues to heat up well past its boiling point.

What then usually happens is that the liquid is bumped or jarred, which is just enough of a shock to cause the bubbles to rapidly form and expel the hot liquid. The rapid formation of bubbles is also why a carbonated beverage spews when opened after having been shaken.'

A friend of mine had the same thing happen to him about 20 years ago. He had heated some water, and when he removed the container it just blew up in his face. He was in the hospital for a few days and they covered his entire face in Aloe Vera gel. IT seemes to have done the job,because as burned as he was, you can't tell it ever happened after a few months.

Never heard of that happening, but I'm familiar with the principle of superheating from college days. Thanks Chris.

Thanks for the warning tip.

Just to maybe lend a bit more credibility, I work for GE in the particle physics sector.

Oh, now that is cool. I wanted to be a physicist, but gave up shortly before my BS and graduated EE. So, please tell about what you do.

That explains why the mouse didn't explode until I reached in and picked it up!

Laney, I work with particle accelerators. I guess I would be more of an alchemist than a physicist. Alchemists are associated with turning lead into gold, I turn Thallium into lead. The decayed product is then used for heart scans and is more precious than gold. At least it is worth more per ounce. We also make radio-iodine for scans and cancer treatment. Also very pricey.

I currently have a BSME and a BSTPM,you can see I am full of BS. Currently, I am going to classes to complete my MSOM.

I think I also read that if there is a totally smooth surface inside the cup it is a contributing factor to this happening. If the cup has a bump/flaw in the glaze inside it will be less likely to happen.

Aimee, you hit the nail on the head. A pre-existing flaw tends to concentrate heat and will even start nucleic boiling before the rest of the water comes to the boiling point and once the boiling starts it continues until the heat source is removed or there is no more water.

SO a smooth surface allows the superheating with little or no boiling, then the energy releases itself when acted upon by an outside force like it gets jarred and all boils at once.

Dont know much about golf but a little about thermodynamics.

Thanks, Chief, that sounds pretty cool. What are the above?

Bottom line: if you want to boil a cup of water, and not get burned

USE A DIRTY CUP WITH LOTS OF OLD STUFF STICKING TO THE INSIDE.

or do it the old fashioned way and use your stove. Or if you are making coffee, DON'T make instant coffee.

BSME- Bachelor of Science Mechanical Enigineering
BSTPM- BAchelor of Science Technical Project Management
MSOM- Masters of Science Operations Management

Better yet use a automatic drip coffee pot, I think that is what they are for

Chief,
Fantastic! I did not know thats what you do. I used to get together once a week with a structural engineer friend of mine just to discuss the latest theories in partical phyics. He eventually got all tangled up in string theory. Question: how fast are the particles accelerated and how long is the accelerating run or is it loop?

If everyone can stay focused, through an entire round of golf, on what you're discussing in this post, Scott and I would like to play ya'll for a lot of dinero.

Just remember Bill, no good deed goes unpunished..

Fred I work with Cyclotrons or loop accelerators and we accelerate protons to about 1/3 the speed of light or we measure it in particle energy at about 30MeV. Very perceptive on the loop deal. Just down the road they run a linear accelerator for testing purposes and I think they are real long like a mile or so. Actually there are two places Fermi Labs and Argonne Labs.

Bill is your head spinning or does it just hurt? Thats how I feel when discussing golf, and why I do not normally offer advice. I just dont know enough.

Actually, I know exactly what you and Fred are talking about. The two of you are obviously talking about Don and Laney.

BS this, and BS that. It's getting a little deep in BS around here lately.

Last time I saw this many letters,and didn't know what to make of them, I was playing Scrabble with the wife. You guys need to lighten up with the alphabet soup stuff.

Hey I saw someone in here that thought Don was going soft on us, I think this is proof he's still sprinkling cayenne on the corn flakes...

Fred, what about you? Have you told us about your paying work? Sorry if you have and I forgot.

I hope you guys can make it to Wyoming for the GGR Tournament/Reunion. That goes for new people too.