This is a nice demonstration if you are having a barbecue. Only to be done by adults!
Make a paper boat (shown on the page Paper Boats)
Pour some water into it and put it on the hot barbecue. Ask people what they think will happen….. children and adults alike will predict that the paper will burn through and the water will drop onto the barbecue coals and put them out….
Amazingly, this doesn’t happen. The water will boil before the paper burns. Only if all the water boils away will the paper eventually catch fire. What happens is that the water conducts the heat of the flame away from the paper, so the paper doesn’t reach its ignition temperature.
So, what to do with the boiling water? Well, you could try putting some flower leaves in and then going onto Plant Colours and Acids