Superheating of water (Mythbusters)

it happened to me and I used tap water.,,,this sh*t happens.

i think plausible because Adam and Jamie had to use a certain kind of water not tap

My dad just came home and told me he seen an aquaintance at Wal Mart. He said her face looked like she had been beaten with a rubber hose. She said a cup of coffee exploded in her face, after she microwaved it. Apparently, this could be plausible.

@clintonearlwalker ya i remember seeing a news story on 20/20 about this many years ago. ever since then ive always been paranoid about unusually still water that i heated in the microwave

drshields1988 I've never had this problem. I don't drink coffee or heat water in the microwave. I only reheat leftovers. I'll be very careful if I ever try to heat water in there though. Cheers!!

It makes perfect SENSE since that's all a microwave does. It boils water. If you put food in it, all the microwave does is boil the water in the food to heat it up. Ever notice things get "dry" in the microwave...that's why.

Happened to me too.. I was scared as he**.

Yeah, this happened to me and with tap water! It was in a new glass measuring cup. I kept heating it longer because it didn't look like it was boiling. Then all at once it blew up and actually blew the microwave door open. It startled me, but the microwave was cleaner than it had been in a long time!

Possible you had simply missed seeing the boiling the first time. i.e. didn't come back to the microwave right after it was finished. The first boiling distilled the water taking the "impurites" out. Then superheating would subsequently be possible.

In retrospect, that's the same conclusion I drew at the time. I'm almost certain that I got distracted and came back to reheat the same cup of water. That, combined with the new, smooth glass surface preventing the formation of bubbles, could definitely explain it.