Leidenfrost Effect and Water Drops

The Leidenfrost Effect is a nearly magical phenomena where water seems to stop heating when the surface of a pan gets insanely hot. In this video learn about the science that makes the Leidenfrost Effect occur. Check out the resources and movie guide below!
Cool Resources on this experiment:
1)
I loved the gifs and video in this article that showed how the drops roll. Definitely check it out.
2)
Similar article looking at why drops move around a hot surface.
3)
One of my favorite channels does a follow up experiment with the Leidenfrost Experiment where he compares the rate of super hot spheres falling through water to an unheated sphere falling through water.
4)
Another one of my favorite channels does an experiment where they contain water in a hot crucible to see how a large body of water responds to the Leidenfrost Effect.
5)
One of the rad applications of the Leidenfrost is its ability to "walk" up ridges. Here is one example video of loved of this effect.

Premovie
Have you ever put a water drop on a hot pan? What happened or what do you think would happen?

Explain why you think (or what you have observed) a water drop on a hot pan behaves how it does.

Movie
Describe the weird effect you notice when a drop of water is placed on a really hot pan or plate.

Draw a little picture of what a little water drop might look like if we could zoom in on it.

What do you think the large water drop is doing that allows it to not boil even though it is on a really hot surface?

What do you think the pulses are that we see on the large drop and why don’t they pop?
What are a 3 differences you notice between the hot pan(left) and the hot plate (right)
Hot Pan: Hot Plate:
1. 1.

2. 2.

3. 3.
Where is energy being absorbed in the water drop and what happens to that energy that allows the water drop to NOT boil?

When does the most heat transfer in a fluid that is heated?

What temperature needs to be maintained in order for this effect to take place?

What happens at around 200°C?

Why does sand not maintain the water bead on its surface?

Explain why water drops might want to zoom around a hot pan surface.

Why does heat stop transferring as fast in a heating fluid?

What do you think happens to the currents in a really large water drop?

Post Movie
16. What experiment would you like to try based on these results? Create a step by step guide how to do your experiment.

17. Based on your knowledge, what do you hypothesize will occur in your experiment?

18. How do you think a graph of energy transfer into OIL that is heated would compare to the graph we created of energy transfer into water?