What Causes the ‘Pop’ Sound in Popcorn?

Popcorn pops because the steam inside it gets too hot and explodes! Imagine you're a tiny kernel of popcorn. Inside you, there's water. When you heat up, that water turns into steam. The steam pushes out really hard until pop! It bursts open and becomes fluffy popcorn.

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Examples

A tiny kernel of popcorn is like a balloon filled with steam, it pops when it gets too hot!
When you heat up a bag of popcorn, each kernel makes its own little pop sound as it bursts open.
Imagine your mouth is the shell of a popcorn kernel, when you blow up and burst, that’s what makes the pop!

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Categories: Physics · sound,heat,phase change,materials science