Why when you boil a pot of water, does it initially get noisy, then go quiet, then get noisy again?
In: Chemistry
When you boil water, the heat causes the water to change into the vapour state. This means, vapour is rising and creating bubbles which make a popping noise.
As the water starts heating, it gets hot at the bottom first. When the bottom gets hot enough, tiny bubbles (too small to see clearly) form and rise. But the water higher up isn’t hot yet, so the bubbles cool off and collapse. This creates the rumbling noise you hear. As the water heats more completely, the water at the top becomes hot enough that it doesn’t collapse the tiny bubbles any more. This the quiet part. As the water becomes boiling hot, large bubbles are created that reach the surface and burst into the air, creating noise again.
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