Thermal tissue burns due to contact of the skin with steam can be much more seve

Question

Thermal tissue burns due to contact of the skin with steam can be much more severe than those caused by contact with hot water. The following questions will explore why contact with steam is more injurious. The specific heat of tissue is 3500 J/(kgC), the specific heat of water is 4186 J/(kgC), and the latent heat of vaporization of water is 2.26×106 J/kg.

A) Why is the burn from 100C steam more severe than that from 100C water?

B) If 10 g of steam at 100C condenses on a burn victim's skin and is cooled to 40 C on his skin, how much heat is transferred from the water?

C) If 10 g of steam at 100C condenses on a burn victim's skin and is cooled to 40 C on his skin, and his skin was originally at 37C, how much skin was heated to the final temperature?

Explanation / Answer

A)
Suppose final temperature in both case be ToC which is room temperature
Heat relased by steam will be more when it cools down to ToC due to presence of extra Latent heat of Vapourisation as compared to water.
Due to this greater heat, burns of steam is more severe than that of water

B)
m = 10 g = 0.01 Kg
Q = m*L + m*C* deltaT
= 0.01*2.26*10^6 + 0.01*4186*(100-40)
=25111.6 J

C)
Q = 25111.6 J
Now use for skin:
Q = m*C*delta T
25111.6 = m*3500*(40-37)
m = 2.39 Kg
Answer: 2.39 Kg

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