Why does adding water to boiling oil cause an explosion but nothing happens when adding oil to boiling water?
In: 200
Water can only reach as high as 100C before it starts boiling. No matter how much you heat up water at 100C, it wont get to 101C unless it is steam. Heating water more when its at 100C just makes it boil at 100C faster. Dump some oil in 100C water, and the oil will quickly rise to 100C but remain as a liquid.
Cooking oil can get to 212C before boiling. Dump some water into boiling 212C oil and and the water will quickly rise to 100C and start boiling extremely fast. Any liquid water also sinks in the boiling oil so that it is surrounded by super hot oil, making it boil even faster. It boils so quickly it causes dropplets of boiling oil to eject upwards and aerosolize, which has the potential to ignite into a fiery explosion.
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