You might think it’s a bad idea to try and boil water in a paper cup using an open flame, like a Bunsen burner. However, it is possible (although a bit messy!) to do this! The reason why the cup doesn’t burn is due to latent heat, a chemist’s term for the energy involved for a phase change to occur. The big idea here is that once the water reaches its boiling point, all of the energy from the flame is absorbed and used to change liquid water into gas, so the temperature never goes above 100 degr