Naked Science Forum

General Science => General Science => Topic started by: paul.fr on 05/09/2008 15:15:05

Title: why can i drink water that is hot enough to scold?
Post by: paul.fr on 05/09/2008 15:15:05
I can drink hot water (in the form of a nice cup of tea) and feel no pain, yet that same water when spilt on my hand causes some pain. Why the difference, and how come?
Title: why can i drink water that is hot enough to scold?
Post by: JimBob on 05/09/2008 17:13:59
Because water cannot speak - if it could it would scold you for being such a naughty boy, esp. When you are in your chambers choking ....

we'll just let it go there.
Title: why can i drink water that is hot enough to scold?
Post by: miranda on 06/09/2008 12:56:20
Nice joke on the misspelling but ....

Why can you drink water hot enough to *scald* your skin?
Title: why can i drink water that is hot enough to scold?
Post by: neilep on 06/09/2008 13:34:31
As a sheepy I am of course always imbibing copious quantities of tea and thus am able to answer this question.

In MY opinion (Educated guess work here )...........The amount of liquid sipped into the mouth is tiny. during the process from cup , through lips to tongue it loses heat. When it finally hits the inside of the mouth it has already cooled a bit and then, with the wetness there it is cooled down even more so. This happens very quickly,

There is also the matter of the nature of a ' slurp ' . When slurping you are also drawing in air that cools the liquid down in addition to the other factors already mentioned.

However, this will not work with volcanic lava and molten lead/iron !
Title: why can i drink water that is hot enough to scold?
Post by: LeeE on 06/09/2008 14:41:16
The inside of the mouth, throat and stomach are much less sensitive to heat than the outsides of our bodies - getting blisters inside the mouth, through trying to eat/drink food that is too hot is common, indicating that we are able to consume things that are damagingly hot.

Our bodies though, because they generators heat, need to shed excess heat to prevent us from overheating.  The typical comfortable environmental temperature is around 20C, so while something that's 40-50C would feel distinctly hot when pressed against our skin, it would feel only warm at best if we were to eat it.  It's possible therefore, that the increased sensitivity of our skin to contact heat is because it's a warning not against direct heat damage to the contact area but to potential overheating of the whole body.