TERMIUM Plus^®

Record 1,  Textual support,  English

Record number: 1, Textual support number: 1 CONT

When a pot of cold water is heated on a stove, the temperature rises steadily until the boiling point is reached. Then, counterintuitively, the temperature gets stuck. To unstick the temperature and raise it beyond the boiling point requires strenuous effort, in the form of a large amount of heat that must be supplied to the pot. ... The temperature of the water gets stuck because, on the microscopic scale, to change liquid water into steam you must supply energy to rip apart clusters of water molecules. The energy needed to rearrange the molecules does not go into producing faster motion, and so it does not raise the temperature of the water. The temperature thus remains constant until the boiling is complete.  1, record 1, English, - get%20stuck

Record 1,  Textual support,  French

Record 1,  Textual support,  Spanish