Drop water onto a hot pan and something strange happens.

Instead of instantly boiling away, the droplets can slide, spin, and dance across the surface.

It almost looks like the water is floating.

But there is some fascinating physics underneath.

In Why Water Drops Dance on a Hot Pan, we explore the Leidenfrost effect — the phenomenon that occurs when a liquid touches a surface far hotter than its boiling point.

The bottom of the water droplet vaporizes almost instantly.

That creates a thin layer of steam between the droplet and the pan.

Steam is a poor conductor of heat compared with the metal surface, so the vapor layer acts like a temporary cushion.

The droplet is no longer making normal contact with the pan.

Instead, it is partially supported by its own vap ...