Why is boiling water loud, then quiet?

Question

Water in my electric kettle makes the most noise sixty to ninety seconds before the water comes to a full boil. I have been fooled many times by the noisy kettle, only to discover that the water was not yet hot enough for tea. The kettle is only at a full boil after the noise has subsided.

I have noticed the same phenomenon with many other kettles, including conventional kettles on kitchen ranges; it is not a peculiarity of this electric kettle.

Why does the boiling become quieter as the water reaches full boil?

Answer 1

There are three phenomena that occur before vigorous boiling of water that produce sound.

1) Air dissolved in water on heating forms small air bubbles at the bottom of the container. These air bubbles get released from the bottom of the container on reaching a sufficient size. The process of release produces a sound of frequency ~ 100 Hz.

2) On boiling, small vapor bubbles get produced at the bottom of the container and also produce sound of ~ 100 Hz on release. However, they cool down before they reach the surface of water and collapse. This collapsing produces a sound of frequency ~ 1 kHz.

3) Collapsing vapor bubbles agitate the water to release small micro air bubbles from water and also from the air trapped in the vapor bubble. This production of micro air bubbles produces a sound of ~ 35–60 kHz.

I guess you were talking about either the first or the second case. Both of them occur before you observe vigorous boiling of water and you can hear them.

There was an interesting problem posed at APHO 2008 which is the same as your question which estimates the frequencies I just quoted. It also contains references to the experimental measurement of these frequencies. I hope you will find it interesting to solve it than me answering your question:

Theoretical Problem 1. Tea Ceremony and Physics of Bubbles

You can also find the solutions here in case you need help on this:

Theoretical Solution 1, 9^th Asian Physics Olympiad

Answer 2

Here is the answer I get from internet. Google makes things easier.

There are a few contributors to the noise you hear. The main reason is that when water boils, it turns to steam, but that's just at the bottom of the pan. The steam at first doesn't make it to the surface of the water because it cools and condenses back to liquid form.

These percussive, collapsing bubbles of steam are what you hear. It's a bit like a water-hammer effect in pipes. When the bubbles collapse, the water slams into itself and, being a non-compressible liquid, converts that energy into sound waves.

When the bubbles of steam begin to make it to the surface, the noise diminishes. When all the steam makes it to the surface, the sound stops altogether.

Answer 3

as per conservation of energy, provided
heat is used to heat the water, thus it raise its temperature. As molecules are not very tightly bonded in liquids ,they start moving randomly. these movement causes colapsation initially and it gives out some of the energy gained in the form of sound energy of varying intensity/frequency, as there are no any other changes could take place to expend that energy. The frequencies which are in audible range are heard. Further, as the water reaches its heat capacity, further heating causes its molecules to escape from its surface.the molecular sound ceases but other mechanical attention getting features makes the rest of the sound.