# Why does adding salt to boiling water cause it to flare up suddenly? - Tags: everyday-chemistry, water - Score: 15 - Views: 6,512 - Answers: 2 - Asked by: Avyansh Katiyar (5,632 rep) - Asked on: May 5, 2018 - Last active: Dec 14, 2020 - License: CC BY-SA 4.0 --- ## Question I was expecting that the water would become less "boily" since the ions in $\\ce{NaCl}$ would require energy to disassociate. Instead it turned whitish and the water level suddenly rose and then subsided. I think the white color can be attributed to the fact that table salt is white but why did the water suddenly flare up ? --- ## Accepted Answer — Score: 35 - By: Waylander (24,416 rep) - Answered on: May 5, 2018 The salt does not instantly dissolve so the surface of the crystals suddenly provides a lot of nucleation sites for the water to form vapour - hence the surge as it boils from these surfaces. The white is due to turbulence from the boiling just like waterfalls look white. --- ## Answer 2 — Score: 1 - By: James Gaidis (14,493 rep) - Answered on: Dec 14, 2020 It seems that water does not begin boiling at 100.001 degrees C. A pot of water keeps getting hotter and hotter until it produces $H\_