The Leidenfrost effect - SCIENCE!

[Lord Percy]

The Leidenfrost effect is when a liquid touches a surface so hot that when it boils, the immediate vapour forms a protective base underneath the liquid, so it isn't properly touching the surface any more and therefore lasts very much longer than you would ever expect. If you set your oven hob to hottest and put a drop of water on it, you can see the Leidenfrost effect in action.

Some guys at the University of Bath took it a bit further. They used a sawtooth ridged surface so that the boiling water would always be at a slight angle to the standard flat position, which means the pressure of the vapour underneath causes the droplets to be propelled to the side and, therefore, can even go uphill.

tl;dr - boiling water droplets made to navigate maze.

https://www.liveleak.com/view?i=c37_1380787459

[stinkwheel]

You can achieve another odd effect if you put low boiling point petroleum ether in your hand. It boils. You can light it but it is evaporating so fast that the heat from the flame doesn't burn you.
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[Lord Percy]

I saw a similar thing done with liquid nitrogen.

The last couple of clips in the video are awesome - you can see his hand causing it to boil.

[MattJ]

I see you also follow I Fucking Love Science.

[DrDonnyBrago]