Question

Explain why burns caused by steam are more severe than burns caused by boiling water.

Answer 1

Burns caused by steam are more severe than burns caused by boiling water:

• Because the energy possessed by steam is more than water.
• Steam has an additional latent heat of vaporisation.
• Latent heat of vaporisation: It is the amount of heat required to change the state of the liquid state of a substance to a gaseous state without any change in temperature.
• Because of this extra energy in the steam, it causes more burn than boiling water.