this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2025
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Pretty much the definition of spontaneous if you ask me.
In addition to what MotoAsh said, it also has a definite external influence and a well defined force acting upon it. It boiled because it underwent a change in pressure.
Without apparent external influence. Relative pressure is something humans have a hard time judging. As well as it just exists everyone in that zone vice something easy to perceive, like a fire under a pot boiling water.
You are telling me the vacuum pump makes it not an apparent external influence? It is kinda loud?
She wasn't saying that water was spontaneously boiling in this chamber. She was saying that they were in a space-equivalent chamber with a pressure such that water would spontaneously boil. If you found yourself in the environment that is being simulated here (outer space), you would be able to observe water spontaneously boiling workout the vacuum pumps.
The act of going into space is very apparent. There is a giant rocket you are strapped to. My point isn't arguing "spontaneous boiling", which in this case is used correctly. But rather the common use of spontaneous in this thread is defined as having no apparent cause. That's just not true. There is a cause, in the picture, the pressure of the room is being manipulated. And the reason for the water boiling is the ΔP.
Idk man, my ears are pretty good at estimating quick relative pressure changes.
Also, were I in a spavesuit, I'd probably have trouble judging temperature changed as well.
Yes, afaik in science community that is in fact the correct use of the word, meaning from "environmental" conditions (well, it's test conditions for the environment in this case) and not from an active, localised influence.
I mean, if you put some stuff in a room, then slowly start to heat the room up, would you describe the things — which will at one point or another catch fire —as "spontaneously" combusting?
I'm not arguing the use is wrong here, just a thought I had.
Yes, that is why I used the quotation marks & further explained that the "heat up the room" in your case would be 'a simulation of environment'.
Eg, a tree at 20°C has an extremely low chance of spontaneously combusting into a self-fueling oxidation event (lol, shit's on fire, yo) in your average environment, but those chances at 200°C are much higher.
In order to test this spontaneous combustion theory (whilst having no regard for the life of the tree) you would need to simulate that 200°C environmental conditions. ... by heating the air around the tree.
In that case you would heat up a chamber or whatever and in turn eventually maybe burn the tree.
This wound still test/prove the spontaneous combustibility thing.
You bringing open flame in contact with the tree however would not* be that - that is just actively (non-spontaneously) starting a reaction.
This is an experiment trying to test some natural conditions. Every test as such (eg if witnessed by a clueless alien observer) is you doing something actively so ofc none of it is spontaneous.
*unless the environmental conditions you were testing/simulating would be "open 1000° flames/plasma completely everywhere" ... but you may not get a grant for testing "if wood added to fire also burns"
Yes, actually. The autoignition point is the temperature at which a given material will spontaneously (as in, without a spark or the like) catch fire, given a source of oxygen.
collapsed inline media
"Spontaneous" in this usage is highly dependent on frame of reference.
no
words have meanings. thats not what spontaneous means in this context. the definition of spontaneous in this context is independent of the nature of water. and i frankly don't give a shit if you struggle with social norms. i care that the word has a meaning and you are abusing it.
It's not an external cause. It boils on its own, because the molecules don't want to be close together.
There's no pressure in space
You should be an astronaut
I'd still say it's spontaneous because when you reduce pressure you're removing a factor rather than adding one. It's like saying "when you compress a spring and then remove the compression force, it will spontaneously return to its previous length." Water vapor can be seen as water's "natural" state when thero no pressure forcing it to be a liquid. Also saying "simple thermo" to an astronaut is definitely mansplaining, because it implies the other person doesn't know that simple thermo. Maybe it's just pedantry, but in that case damn that's some terrible phrasing.
Just like this comment!
“Spontaneous” is actually the correct word to use here, using its definition in statistical mechanics.
Here’s an example: https://principlesofchemistryopencourse.pressbooks.tru.ca/chapter/5-6/
This should have been the correct answer to Kev, and not that thing about mansplaining.
I think would've even worked in a reference to "it is Kev's turn to study statistical mechanics."
While you are technically correct, you also misunderstand who the target audience is and what language is required to actually make people understand.
When speaking to a normal person you don’t want to slap random jargon and care too much about precise definitions. So in that context spontaneous is a great word to describe what is happening. People without deep backgrounds in the field will not understand technical jargon and it will only make them not pay attention.
Spontaneous doesn't mean "happens suddenly without explanation" what are you on about?
Everything has a cause.
Even your face
I agree, it really is showcasing pedantry. That man is just an asshole, not a misogynistic asshole. To me, this thread is full of confirmation bias. People who want to see what they personally believe, not objective reality.
Hahaha, under that definition not spontaneous can ever occur