Why do you sue?

You don't even have to add anything to the water to enable its temperature to be raised to over 100°C, nor do you need to pressurise it - you can do it in a standard cup in a standard microwave oven - it is called superheating and it is very dangerous because the superheated liquid is extremely volatile - simply adding sugar or any rough-surface into the liquid will cause it to violently boil spraying superheated water and water vapour out of the cup.

 

The boiling point of any liquid is the temperature at which the liquid turns to a gas - in boiling water the gas released is steam and the water temperature will be at 100°C when the gas separates from the liquid. The release of energy in the steam bubbles is equal to the heat energy going into the water, therefore once bubbles form in the water its temperature cannot be raised above the boiling point. The bubbles form at what is called nucleation points - imperfections in the surface of the container that trap small pockets of air which "seeds" the formation of steam bubbles.

 

However, in superheated water there are no bubbles so the heat energy going into the water has no release and the water temperature rises to over 100°C. This is because the water in a microwave is heated from the centre of the volume of water so the temperature of the container can be below the boiling point, preventing the formation of bubbles.

 

Superheating can occur in easier in liquid that has been temperature cycled without disturbing the container, since this degases the liquid, reducing the liquid's ability to form bubbles as it approaches the boiling point.

 

 

For you maybe, (not that you'll appear particularly receptive to other peoples answers), people sue for compensation for loss caused by the negligence of others. That negligence is often driven by greed so it is only fair that those greedy people are made to pay for causing the accident.

 

If someone runs into the back of your car you expect that person's insurance company to pay for the damage repair, and you certainly don't expect to have to pay for the repair of the other car (you have already decided balme in this case - it was not a knock-for-knock blameless accident - a rear-end shunt is always the fault of the person who shunted you.). If you receive a physical injury in that accident you will get NHS treatment so why claim for compensation for that? Because of loss of earnings, because "out-of-pocket" expenses caused by having restricted movement or no transport, maybe from now on you have to have specially adapted equipment to enable you to go about your daily life - this costs you money that you would not have to spend if the accident never happened - and because perhaps the quality of your life is now restricted through no fault of your own. (How can you put a price on quality of life? There is no magic formula and no figure will ever be right, but I can tell you it isn't "nothing").

 

So don't give me "accidents happen" because there is no such thing as a blame-free accident - all man-made accidents are caused by the carelessness, negligence or down-right stupidity of someone, and by that, most accidents are preventable (all are preventable in hindsight).- if you can prove that the person responsible did not take proper precautions to ensure your safety then you have a right to compensation for their neglect... the Prosecution services may even do that for you where criminal neglect is involved.

 

Modern employment law is structured so the company owners, management and directors are responsible for the safety of their workforce - this is not so we can sue the nuts off them when we have an accident, it is to ensure that they comply with safety procedures to protect themselves from being sued. They in turn place that responsibility back onto the employee - all employees are responsible for their own safety and that of their co-workers. This means that you have the right to refuse to do something you deem as unsafe. We have a Manual Handling safety demonstration every year - if I then put my back put lifting a PC monitor that is now my fault and I cannot sue the company (in fact they could fire me for breaking safety codes and rendering myself unfit for work).