Why does water make that rustling sound right before it boils?
In: Physics
Those are the sounds of micro bubbles forming and then they cool off and go back to liquid. As you continue heating the water you will see small bubbles form at the heat source that disappear before they reach the surface – the rustling sound you hear is the same phenomenon happening at smaller scale that you can’t see. When liquid water turns to gas it expands to 1600 times its size and that movement creates the sound.
It’s already boiling when you hear that, it’s just only boiling in a tiny layer at the bottom. What you’re hearing is the formation of a huge number of microscopic bubbles at the bottom of the pan that immediately pop as they outgrow the thin boiling layer. As the water continues to warm up, the boiling layer thickens and the bubbles can grow larger, until they’re eventually large enough to see.
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