Why does adding water to boiling oil cause an explosion but nothing happens when adding oil to boiling water?
In: 200
Oil can get much hotter than the boiling point of water. That’s why you can fry things in oil but only boil or steam them in water.
When you pour water into superheated oil, there is enough heat energy present to boil the water instantly. The water breaks into tiny droplets as it enters the oil creating a large surface area which allows a lot of heat to transfer quickly meaning essentially instantaneously boiling water.
Lots of water boiling at once means a rapid expansion of gases which is an explosion.
Then the oil is blown out of the fryer into the air where *it* turns into little droplets. If there is any flame nearby (life if a grease fire was
the reason you dumped water in), those droplets ignite in a chain reaction which adds a bunch of fiery air expansion to the explosion resulting in a Michael Bay fireball that consumes your face.
Latest Answers