Pretty much the title. Chemically speaking what’s going on when this happens?
In: Chemistry
It does not set the oil on fire. There can be a huge fireball if you do that if the oil is already on fire or if there is a separate ignition source, a fire that is used to heat up the oil will be an ignition source
What happens is water is denser then oil so it sinks below the oil. The boiling temperature of the oil is higher then water and as a result the water will quickly be heated and start boiling.
When water turns from a liquid to a gas the volume increases by a factor of around 1000. The steam that is produced has to go somewhere and the way is up through the oil. It will push the oil up in the air in quite small droplets. Small droplets or solids of something that can burn in air give it contact with a loss of oxygen and all if it can burn very quickly if there is an ignition source.
Take a small glass of water put a straw in it and blow through the straw, that will result the air pushing water into the air like the boiling water does with the oil.
If you have oil that is hot enough but there is no ignition source present dropping the water in the oil will just create a steam explosion and throw the oil up in the air but there will not be any fire
If it is cold or warm water does not matter. With warm water it require less energy to get to boil so that will happen a bit faster. Because the process is so fast even with cold water you will not notice the difference.
Latest Answers