This is something that's been in the back of my mind for a while now.
How is it that simple water causes so much noise when it's heating up? An electric kettle doesn't have any moving parts. And a regular kettle on the stove makes the same noise. And even a kettle over a gas stove.
So it isn't the kettle, it's really the water that's making noise. But does heating water really cause it to make that much noise?
Apparently it does. It seems that the noise is caused by the creation of little bubbles of steam on the heated surface. The water that's closest to the heat source gets hotter sooner and small pockets of it turn into steam. But the water further away isn't hot enough yet to boil, so the steam pockets immediately turn back into water. It's this sudden expansion and contraction that causes the roaring noise.
As the water gets hotter, the steam bubbles last longer and are eventually able to rise all the way to the surface. At this point, the roaring noise has gone away because the water is more uniformly hot.
Due to steam pressure. I think that's why.
ReplyDeleteYes, that's exactly what I described in my post Thomas
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