When water levitates

Reactions Science Videos | May 16, 2017

Have you ever seen a drop of water navigate a maze? It’s possible thanks to the same phenomenon that lets you know if a griddle is hot enough for pancake batter. Water droplets that dance and skitter across a hot surface instead of boil away on the spot are experiencing the Leidenfrost effect. Understanding Leidenfrost — first described more than 200 years ago — helped engineers make more efficient steam engines. Today, scientists are using high-speed cameras to better characterize how superhot water behaves on metal surfaces. The investigation might lead to improvements in power generation.

References:
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/7ada...
http://www.wiley.com/college/phy/hall...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0lMJ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzKgn...
http://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/...
http://revolution-green.com/producing...

Thermal conductivity of liquid water
https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/fi...

Thermal conductivity of steam
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/1...