What a firecracker would do to a glass cub of water.

[black phantom]

Hello,
I'm trying to figure out what would happen if you put an explosive into a container of water where the explosive released the same amount of energy it would take to vaporize the water in the container. What would happen to the container?

 

[phinds]

Normally, the energy required to vaporize the water would be spread out over a fair amount of time, even if you were boiling it at a very high heat.

If you caused all that energy to be expended at one time, I would assume that the water would end up mostly on the ceiling and the container would be inserted into the walls in small pieces except for the parts that were absorbed by your body.

You would then regret having done the experiment.

 

[black phantom]

Ok, would there be any way to vaperise water in a container w/ a sudden burst of energy w/out disrupting the container? Maybe w/out a chemical explosive? So there is little expanding non water gasses, just the pure release of energy?

 

[Drakkith]

Ok, would there be any way to vaperise water in a container w/ a sudden burst of energy w/out disrupting the container? Maybe w/out a chemical explosive? So there is little expanding non water gasses, just the pure release of energy?

Microwaves. But unless you have an absolutely tiny amount it would require a huge burst. Much more than is safe to be around. And it is unlikely that the container would be able to survive the massive increase in pressure, so you'd still have an explosion, just from steam this time. Even an open container would probably be severely damaged unless it was very sturdy.

 

[A.T.]

Ok, would there be any way to vaperise water in a container w/ a sudden burst of energy w/out disrupting the container? Maybe w/out a chemical explosive? So there is little expanding non water gasses, just the pure release of energy?

I have done this many times with my tea, and had to clean the mircrowave oven afterwards.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superheating

The other way is to use a very strong closed container that can stand the pressure, and keeps the overheated water liquid, until you open it. But I'm not sure if you can get all the water to vaporize that way. And it is not a good idea to try this at home,

 

[black phantom]

Ok, thanks everyone, you guys helped. And what I'm thinking about is not something i plan to do at home, its all strictly theoretical.