In article .com>,
"Zywicki" > wrote:
>Phred:
>"I liked the idea of just putting the cup of milk into the thing, so
>there was only one dirty item to clean; plus the fact it could be used
>for other things at a pinch. (Like boiling water in a cup for tea. "
>
>You know about the risk of boil-over, right? Not a huge deal, but
>basically the idea is that water can
>super-heat in a microwave - heat to just above the boilling point
>without coming to a boil. Then, when the cup is moved,
>boiling initiates and the water surges out of the cup and over your
>hands. Possibly.

Yeah. It can be quite impressive! When boiling water for tea my
"carefully controlled timing" just brings it nicely to that point.
It makes for an interesting "restlessness" of the water when you drop
the tea bag in. :-)

Incidentally, you can also super-heat water on the stove if you go
about it the right way -- as I discovered the other day when
dissolving some sugar in vinegar to make pickled grapes. It was
sitting there quite still and innocent looking, but damn near
exploded when I stuck a spoon in to give it a stir!

>Easiest ways to avoid this a
>1.)Heat the water in a larger container (ie, a glass measuring cup not
>filled to full)
>2.)put in some sort of irregular surfaced piece of something made to
>initiate boilling (it's the smooth surfaces
>of cups that allow for superheating) >or

Too much trouble. ;-)

>3.)Just keep zapping the darn thing until it boils in the nuker. It'll
>happen - it just might take 5 seconds longer. Of course, then it boils
>over the cup and you lose 1 oz of water, but it's certainly the easiest
>way.
>
>Now, I'm just waiting for someone (I can guess who) to tell us all how
>impossible this is, since water always boils at 212 farenheit.

Cheers, Phred.

--
LID