Eli5: Why does a pot on a stove “produce” more gas when you turn off the flame?

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Gas as in water vapor (sorry if this was unclear)

In: Physics

3 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

If by “gas” you mean steam. Steam is composed mostly of water that has gotten hot enough to turn into vapor. But you can’t actually see water vapor – its completely invisible. What you’re seeing is small amounts of water vapor that has cooled off enough to turn back into liquid water, but which is now stuck in the column of rising steam coming off of the pot.

The hotter the stove that the pot is on, the hotter the water vapor coming off of the pot will be. Hotter water vapor = less cooling off and turning back into liquid water = less visible steam.

When you turn the stove off the temperature of the steam drops. This means that more water in the steam is cooling off and turning back into liquid water, making the steam more visible even though there is now less of it.

Anonymous 0 Comments

If you’re talking about steam, the visible part of steam is actually liquid water falling out of gas phase in tiny droplets. Actual gaseous H20 is invisible.

If your pot was at a very high temperature, the water might stay in gas phase long enough to spread into the environment and not oversaturate the air. Therefore, as the pot cools to closer to boiling temperature, you might get more visible steam as more water comes out of the air.

Anonymous 0 Comments

It doesn’t. The smell of gas is the little bit left in the line after you cut the burner off.