Can heating water in a microwave cause the liquid to violently erupt?

Heating water in a microwave could cause the liquid to violently erupt.


True. Although burns and other injuries are rare, there have been reports of those injuries after plain water was heated past the boiling point and erupted out of its cup. When making hot drinks in a microwave, add sugar, tea, or coffee to the water before heating it and wait a minute before you remove the cup from the oven.

Comments

[Dave Spradley]

Actually, your answer above is not entirely accurate. Water can heat past the boiling point and erupt when disturbed only if there is no surface on which the water molecules can move, such as in a smooth china cup. If water is heated no more than about 60 seconds and then is stirred before continued heating the potential to erupt is almost completely eliminated.
Adding sugar, coffee or tea to the water before it is heated may not be appropriate to the situation and waiting a minute before taking it out only serves to allow it to cool to some degree and it may not cool enough to avoid the eruption if the liquid is still past the boiling point.

[Sylvia]

Yup, I remember how back in the early 90's, for a short while there I was regularly making tea for my mother. She had a specific amount of time to heat the water for, and while I don't remember the exact time, it was over one minute (possibly two?). I still can kind of remember the first time I reached in to get the glass of water out, and the thing previously still water started boiling over on me as soon as I moved the cup. Other times the boiling wouldn't start until I put the tea bag into the cup; a third of the water could boil out onto the countertop.

I also vaguely remember learning about the phenomenon in physics class years later. It had everything to do with breaking the surface tension of water after it reached boiling point. Don't remember what allowed the water to not boil when it should have (and break surface tension) in the first place.