Celsius temperature at which water boils

Facebook Facebook Twitter Twitter. Updated October 06, Featured Video. Cite this Article Format. Helmenstine, Anne Marie, Ph. What Is the Boiling Point of Water?

Definition of Boiling Point in Chemistry. Properties of Ionic and Covalent Compounds. Freezing Point Depression Example Problem. Boiling Point Elevation Example Problem. How Superheating Works - Water in a Microwave.

How to Separate Salt and Sand — 3 Methods. Your Privacy Rights. To change or withdraw your consent choices for ThoughtCo. Freezing water below its freezing point without freezing it into ice is called supercooling. To experience this, put a container of bottled water into a bowl of ice. Small particles act as nucleation sites to promote freezing. Add salt to the ice to lower the temperature. Once water freezes into ice, the ice can be cooled all the way down to absolute zero.

When water vaporizes into steam, the steam can be heated up to the point where water breaks apart into its component atoms. Vapour pressure increases with increasing temperature, as molecules move faster, and more of them have the energy to escape the liquid. When the vapour pressure reaches an equivalent value to the surrounding air pressure, the liquid will boil.

As we move higher into the atmosphere and the atmospheric pressure drops, so too does the amount of vapour pressure required for a liquid to boil. Due to this, the temperature required to reach the necessary vapour becomes lower and lower as we get higher above sea level, and the liquid will therefore boil at a lower temperature. In fact, adding any solute to water will increase the boiling temperature, as it reduces the vapour pressure, meaning a slightly higher temperature is required in order for the vapour pressure to become equal to atmospheric pressure and boil the water.

Experiments have shown that, at the same pressure, water will boil at different temperatures in metal and glass vessels. Useful information if you ever find yourself wanting to make a cup of tea on Everest — the lower boiling point would mean the cup you end up with is rather weak and unpleasant! It would be interesting to see a graph of the boiling point versus altitude all other variables the same.