What produces more severe burns boiling water or steam for Class 9?

Last updated at June 17, 2021 by

The temperature of both, boiling water and steam, is 100°C.

But, burns caused by steam are more severe than burns caused by boiling water.

This is because when water gets converted into steam at 100° C, it absorbs latent heat of vaporization.

Hence, steam has more heat than water at the same temperature.

Therefore, steam gives out much more heat to the skin as compared to the boiling water, thus causing more severe burns.

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Answer:

Steam produces more severe burns than boiling water. We know that in both boiling water and steam, the temperature is around 100-degree celsius but steam causes severe burns. Let us explore the reason behind it.

Steam causes more severe burns.

Steam has more energy than boiling water. It possesses the additional latent heat of vaporization.
So, when steam falls on the skin and condenses to produce water it gives out 22.5 x 105 J/kg more heat than boiling water at the same temperature.
Steam has more energy than boiling water. Therefore, burns produced by steam are more severe than those produced by boiling water.