Michael Solomon, age 10, of West Homestead, Pa., for his question:

WHAT MAKES WATER BOIL?

When you put a pot on the stove, the liquid water turns to steamy vapor and goes off to mingle with the other gases of the air. Naturally this happens only when you light the burner under the pot. This provides heat that is the special magic to make water boil. It happens because water is made of molecules. The basic water molecule is a neat package of two atoms of hydrogen and one of oxygen. It uses energy from heat to keep moving around.

The more energy it gets, the faster it moves. In `liquid water, the molecules have enough energy to cling together in chains and slither around each other, somewhat like follow the leader. On a hot stove, the water molecules get up enough speed to separate. The bubbling water boils. The bubbles are gaseous pockets of separate molecules, which rise to the top and zoom off into the air