Boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion

Okay kiddo, so you know how sometimes we heat up water on the stove to make hot chocolate or tea? Well, when water gets really really hot, it starts to turn into a gas called steam.

Now, normally when we're cooking, we keep an eye on the water so it doesn't get too hot and turn into steam too quickly. But sometimes, accidents can happen and the water can get too hot too fast.

When that happens, the water turns into steam so quickly that it doesn't have enough room to escape the pot or container it's in. All that steam takes up a lot more space than the water did, and it needs to escape somehow.

But if it can't escape, the pressure from the steam builds up and up until eventually it explodes! That's called a boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion, or BLEVE for short.

It can be really dangerous if you're standing too close to the pot or container when it explodes, so it's important to always be careful when cooking and to never leave something on the stove unattended.