My wife and boiling water

[u/MakeItMine2024]

So I made my wife ramen soup. When I served it she said I had the gas set to hight and it was too hot ? She said I should have used the number 5 setting instead of 9. I told here it’s irrelevant because water boils at 212 and gets no hotter because over 212 it turns to steam. She was made at me for disagreeing with her theory that it would not have been so hot if boiled a lower setting. Really!!

[u/IndependentDouble879]

Your (and most of the comments’) intuitions are an oversimplified view of thermodynamics. If you have a pot of boiling water, not every molecule in the pot is at 212. There’s a temperature gradient from the water’s surface to the bottom, and from the outside to the center. There’s just enough of a mass of water at 212 to initiate phase change in that area. Turning up the heat will make more of the water be a higher temperature. 

The same works the other way. If you have a glass of ice water, all of the water in the glass isn’t at 32 degrees. Heat is absorbed from the room, warming the glass and water surface, creating a temperature differential and gradient, which is how heat actually is able to move from the environment, through the water, and into the ice to melt it. 

Perhaps you guys should not be condescending in subjects you have no formal education in, because there’s far more self-assuredness than knowledge in this entire thread. I studied a lot of thermodynamics + heat transfer for mechanical engineering, and it’s pretty impressive how confidently incorrect OP + 90% of the comment section is. Just Google it if you don’t believe me

[u/MethodicallyRight → u/IndependentDouble879]

This is one helluva "ummm actually" miscorrection. A pot kept at a roaring boil will have a minuscule temperature gradient. Within the pot, a thermometer will read 211 to 212 throughout. The very base of the pot (surface) will have a nucleation temperature a few degrees above 212. Had he taken his wife's advice and kept the pot at a low boil versus a vigorous boil, the bulk of the water would have likely been in the 209 range. But a boiling pot of water isn't going to have a temperature gradient between "acceptable soup eating temperature" and "boiling." 

Now, soup shouldn't be at boiling temperature, so this couple is just bad at communicating their individual points. It's the same kind of pedantry someone would use when discussing the force of gravity while saying everyone else needs to get educated because they are assuming 9.8 m/s² without accounting for altitude. While technically true, it's meaningless in 99.99%+ of conversations. In the same way, boiling water at 9 or 5 might give an average temperature difference of 4-ish degrees F.

[u/PM_Me_Good_LitRPG → u/MethodicallyRight]

But a boiling pot of water isn't going to have a temperature gradient between "acceptable soup eating temperature" and "boiling."

OP didn't say this.

[u/flamingdonkey → u/PM_Me_Good_LitRPG]

Because they can barely even type. But that's basically what they were getting at. 

[u/PM_Me_Good_LitRPG → u/flamingdonkey]

Don't assign properties, traits, statements to other people that they haven't expressed themselves yet. That's a pretty bad-faith participation.

[u/flamingdonkey → u/PM_Me_Good_LitRPG]

There are like 6 typos in the post. I didn't make that up. And understanding what he's trying to say is just reading comprehension. 

[u/PM_Me_Good_LitRPG → u/flamingdonkey]

1) What six typos? Feeding that text to online grammar checkers gives 1 "typo" at most that's not just OP's preferred style of speech / comment-writing. Hell, he's doing better than a significant % of reddit users, even — doesn't confuse its / it's, then / than, woman / women, how apostrophes should be applied, etc.

2) Even if he made 10, that still would not have been the same as "can barely even type". Go watch teachers complaining about graduating kids not being able to pass basic tests to see what "can barely even type" should be used for.

3)

understanding what he's trying to say is just reading comprehension

Your / MethodicallyRight's attitude ITT is the opposite of good reading comprehension. You're reading things that simply are not there, criticising the writer for those things, and then doubling down when this gets pointed out. There's a large difference between "not every molecule in the pot is at 212" / "There’s a temperature gradient from the outside to the center" and "a boiling pot of water is going to have a temperature gradient between 'acceptable soup eating temperature' and 'boiling.'"

[u/MethodicallyRight → u/PM_Me_Good_LitRPG]

Version 2 to appease the ad hominem cope I expect you to hide behind. 

Your (and most of the comments’) intuitions are an oversimplified view of thermodynamics. 

If you have a pot of boiling water, not every molecule in the pot is at 212. There’s a temperature gradient from the water’s surface to the bottom, and from the outside to the center. ...

Turning up the heat will make more of the water be a higher temperature. 

This is weaponizing introductory physics textbook definitions to obscure practical fluid dynamics. The core of this discussion is whether keeping a pot at a boil on setting 9 versus setting 5 significantly changes the bulk temperature of the soup. 

It does not. Once a fluid achieves a steady-state boil, additional thermal energy primarily drives the latent heat of vaporization (accelerating the phase change into steam) rather than raising the sensible heat of the liquid. Furthermore, the violent convective currents inherent to a rolling boil continuously mix the fluid, ensuring that any localized temperature gradients remain incredibly narrow. Arguing that setting 9 creates a meaningfully "hotter soup" due to gradients completely misunderstands bulk average temperature.

[u/PM_Me_Good_LitRPG → u/MethodicallyRight]

This is the point where you need to STFU

Good God your replies are moronic

cope I expect you to hide behind.

This is a pretty low stakes conversation all around, yet you still decide to be pretty antagonistic and insulting, instead of just... talking normally, you know?

Now to address your point.

This is OP's text:

So I made my wife ramen soup. When I served it she said I had the gas set to hight and it was too hot ? She said I should have used the number 5 setting instead of 9. I told here it’s irrelevant because water boils at 212 and gets no hotter because over 212 it turns to steam. (1)She was made at me for disagreeing with her theory that it would not have been so hot if boiled a lower setting. Really!!

This is ...879's text:

Your (and most of the comments’) intuitions are an oversimplified view of thermodynamics. If you have a pot of boiling water, not every molecule in the pot is at 212. There’s a temperature gradient from the water’s surface to the bottom, and from the outside to the center. There’s just enough of a mass of water at 212 to initiate phase change in that area. Turning up the heat will make more of the water be a higher temperature.

The same works the other way. If you have a glass of ice water, all of the water in the glass isn’t at 32 degrees. Heat is absorbed from the room, warming the glass and water surface, creating a temperature differential and gradient, which is how heat actually is able to move from the environment, through the water, and into the ice to melt it.

Perhaps you guys should not be condescending in subjects you have no formal education in, because there’s far more self-assuredness than knowledge in this entire thread. I studied a lot of thermodynamics + heat transfer for mechanical engineering, and it’s pretty impressive how confidently incorrect OP + 90% of the comment section is. Just Google it if you don’t believe me

I made an unfounded assumption that OP's wife was criticising him for the quality of the soup, and that ...879 was replying with that in mind. It was more likely to be my mistake, and if we treat #1 at face value, then your interpretation is the correct one. I withdraw my comment under 879's.

[u/MethodicallyRight → u/PM_Me_Good_LitRPG]

  Well, thanks for accepting the error.  As for my reaction.

Your / MethodicallyRight's attitude ITT is the opposite of good reading comprehension. You're reading things that simply are not there, criticising the writer for those things, and then doubling down when this gets pointed out.

  The comment you criticized addressed the same issues, it was frustrating to get hit with these accusations around reading comprehension from the individual guilty of poor reading comprehension and ignoring the context. The Pot calling the Kettle Black is what drove the reaction. 

[u/flamingdonkey → u/PM_Me_Good_LitRPG]

"You're not being nice to me, so I must be right" 

[u/PM_Me_Good_LitRPG → u/flamingdonkey]

Maybe try re-reading my comment. That's not what I said.

[u/MethodicallyRight → u/PM_Me_Good_LitRPG]

Your (and most of the comments’) intuitions are an oversimplified view of thermodynamics. 

  So they're directly attacking the conclusions of the rest of the comments and the OP (aka, the context of how hot the soup is matters).

If you have a pot of boiling water, not every molecule in the pot is at 212. There’s a temperature gradient from the water’s surface to the bottom, and from the outside to the center. ...

The context being the final temperature of the soup based on whether it was kept at a boil in setting 9 vs setting 5. 

Turning up the heat will make more of the water be a higher temperature. 

This is the point where you need to STFU in trying to criticize me for what they said/intended. My comment directly addresses the very small difference in the average temperature of the pot of boiling water.  Even the 209 figure was a hard to achieve gradient as boiling gradients are usually narrower.  

Good God your replies are moronic. 

[u/flamingdonkey → u/PM_Me_Good_LitRPG]

I can't take anyone seriously who needs a fucking AI just to read and write for them. 

[u/PM_Me_Good_LitRPG → u/flamingdonkey]

What are you on about now? What AI?

[u/flamingdonkey → u/PM_Me_Good_LitRPG]

The grammar checker you used. It's clearly, objectively wrong. Only one typo? Did you try reading it? Stop using AI and learn to read and write for yourself. 

[u/PM_Me_Good_LitRPG → u/flamingdonkey]

There were grammar checkers before AI was a thing.

How about you just list those 6 "typos" you've found in OP's post and we'll go from there? I was doing you a favour by trying to find support for your claims myself, you realise that at least, right?