Strange kitchen phenomena

So I was working on my culinary expertise in the kitchen tonight (yeah, Ramen Noodles. I'm a master...). Anyway, I put the pot on (4" deep, regular steel pot) and turned on the stove. After about 5 minutes, I walked into the kitchen to get a spoon and the water erupted from the pot. Now it hadn't been boiling at all when I walked in...it went from totally calm to a literal explosion. Shot hot water all over the kitchen and emptied all but about an inch of water in the pot, which then calmly boiled.

So yeah...what the heck happened there?! Just curious if anyone out there with a bigger brain than me can figure this out. (That pretty well covers all of you. Don't let the size of my noggin fool you, its mostly for ballast...)

cheers.
t.

SUB PARTICLE NUCLEI FISSION,SUB PARTICLE NUCLEI FISSION,SUB PARTICLE NUCLEI FISSION.

I've only read about it but never heard of it happening to anyome or anything for that matter.

I have read stories about microwaving water until it is superheated (beyond the boiling point) then adding a foreign object will cause it to boil over violently.
I have tried to pull this off, but couldn't...maybe my microwave is broken.
found a snopes article:
http://www.snopes.com/science/microwave.asp
Guess my dishes weren't clean enough.

Great link!!!!

Check out the video on melting a beer bottle. It's one of the links on that page.

Uh.. does Pyro know your cooking

greg11 wrote:

I have read stories about microwaving water until it is superheated (beyond the boiling point) then adding a foreign object will cause it to boil over violently.
I have tried to pull this off, but couldn't...maybe my microwave is broken.
found a snopes article:
http://www.snopes.com/science/microwave.asp
Guess my dishes weren't clean enough.

I've seen the microwave thing happen. It's a bit scary. It literally "blows up". Don't know if I'd wanna try to make that happen.

Now, putting a fluorescent light bulb in the microwave....well that's just plain fun.

The exploding water thing happened to me a couple of time, once making cocoa, once tea. Both times, I had let the 'wave run out of time, then came back and ran it again. When I took out the cup it was just steaming a little, then I put either the tea bag or spoon of cocoa and fwoosh, came boiling right out of the cup. Luckely I didn't get scorched.

If you get a chance, pop an old cd in there and keep a careful eye on it, it looks cool. (Prop it up if you can with a plastic cup or something.) Be warned, it will make the inside of the microwave smell really bad for a while.

to increase your odds if you want to try, distilled water, disable the lazy Suzann.

This is an excellent way to clean your microwave, super heat water, let sit for 15 minutes, wipe the inside with a paper towel. It loosens every thing from spaghetti to 2 year old mac and cheese!

Grizzled_Imposter wrote:

to increase your odds if you want to try, distilled water, disable the lazy Suzann.

This is an excellent way to clean your microwave, super heat water, let sit for 15 minutes, wipe the inside with a paper towel. It loosens every thing from spaghetti to 2 year old mac and cheese!

LOL, While i'm sure that is an excellent tip...I can't help but wonder how you figured that one out....

See, the odd thing was, this was on a stove, not in a microwave...

...zee plot thickens! Duhn duhn duhnnnn

And yes, smoking CDs is nifty!

Stinks almost as bad as burnt hair tho...

t.

RoadKill v3.4 wrote:

Uh.. does Pyro know your cooking

lol he acts like he hasnt blown up the kitchen before...

but no i was in the other room and it sounded as if a bomb went off...scary stuff. steam all the way in the living room! Tho it was entertaining to see wombat jump about 10 feet! Im glad no one got hurt tho. the kids were with me and not the kitchen thankfully!

UntamedSub wrote:

Grizzled_Imposter wrote:

to increase your odds if you want to try, distilled water, disable the lazy Suzann.

This is an excellent way to clean your microwave, super heat water, let sit for 15 minutes, wipe the inside with a paper towel. It loosens every thing from spaghetti to 2 year old mac and cheese!

LOL, While i'm sure that is an excellent tip...I can't help but wonder how you figured that one out....

Actually, I got it as a tip out of Good Housekeeping magazine a number of years ago. They had an article on things that your microwave is good for besides cooking food.

The only other tip I remember was using it to "sterilize" your kitchen sponges so that you can keep them from smelling bad.

The above seems to beg the question of why. I read voraciously, sometimes upward of 700 or 800 hardback pages a week. It does matter what, but when I feel the need to read something, its like a compulsion. It wouldn't matter what. when hit with the need, I have found myself perusing the adds in the phone book, browsing a thesaurus and googling the ingredients on a tube of neosporin.

No, I am not cursed with a photographic memory, (thank the one above).

Please stop me before I re-read this post

LOL Grizz.... yes I was actually wondering ...why is Grizz reading Good Housekeeping? lol but after your colorful explanation, I am now wondering if you have an OCD in reading LOL..... Is that what living in Alaska does to ya? LOL just kidding with ya but Wow, I think you should have a library in your house if you don't already. You must be one smart cookie!

well, I try to donate as many books as I can, but we have 6 bookshelves that are and will be perpetually full, piles and piles of books around the bed, 2 small bookshelves in the bathroom and 15 rubber maid 40 gallon storage totes full of books that I cant seem to part with.

Lately my wife and I have been flirting with reading downloaded books just to save on room but between battery life, eyestrain due to displays and the fact that they are more difficult to share we have not converted fully yet.

I wouldn't say that I am smart, but I do have a decent knowledge base and I am pretty good at finding answer's. Call it a skill in "library search" if you will.

What I have difficulty understanding is how someone can see print (like a sign or what not) and not read it. When my eyes see text or symbols, without any thought to the matter, my mind wants to provide me meaning. I find it very consternating when it is a language that I do not understand.

Grizzled_Imposter wrote:

well, I try to donate as many books as I can, but we have 6 bookshelves that are and will be perpetually full, piles and piles of books around the bed, 2 small bookshelves in the bathroom and 15 rubber maid 40 gallon storage totes full of books that I cant seem to part with.

Im so jealous! I want a library...a whole room top to bottom of books! shelves and shelves! we also love puzzles and we glue them together so id want those in there as well. Big old fireplace and such. thats one of my dreams i will be making real once we have a lil bit bigger house! But im way jealous of you Griz! I LOVE reading! If wombat let me buy all the books i wanted lol my house would be covered in it!