Originally Posted by /^Blackmagik^\
water boils because of the impurities in the water... i was watching myth busters a while back and they tested this... they put distilled water in a sterile coffee cup and nuked it for about 10 minutes.. it never boiled. they dropped in a teabag and the water exploded all over the place. as to why? i have no idea.
that's not correct.
the water explodes because the teabag broke the surface tension.
this is actually a fairly common injury.
the water doesn't boil because the temperature is raise very quickly
the myth they were testing was if the water would actually explode.