Question

1. Water boils at 100°C at sea level. If the water in this experiment did not boil at 100°C, what could be the reason?

Answer 1

Answer:

It may not be at the sea level

Explanation:

The reason here is water only boils at sea level. This means that if you move water to a different height, say top of a mountain, the boiling temperature of water would change. This is due to the pressure drop at high place. The drop of pressure would make it harder to transform water liquid to gas, thus requiring more temperature.

Answer 2

Answer:

The experiment is not performed at sea level.

Or

And also there may be presence of impurities in the water used for the experiment

Explanation:

The boiling point of pure water at sea level is 100°C, but the boiling point can be affected mainly by two factors;

i) Pressure

ii) impurities

At higher altitudes ( above sea level) the atmospheric pressure is reduced (the higher you go the lower the atmospheric pressure), thereby leading to reduced boiling point of water (at lower pressure water boils faster). While if the altitude is lower than sea level atmospheric pressure is higher so water boils at higher temperatures (above 100°C).

Secondly, presence of impurities(e.g salt) in water increases the boiling point of water in most cases.

Therefore, if water does not boil at 100°C it may be as a result of the elevation (altitude) or the water may contain impurities.