• Question: Why do people wet their finger and then put it through a flame and it dosn't burn them?

    Asked by 9chadh to Antonia, Douglas, Hugh, Matt, Tom on 22 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Matthew Hurley

      Matthew Hurley answered on 18 Jun 2010:

      THe same reason we sweat – the heat energy evaporates the water – when it’s dry though it’ll burn (and hurt a lot) for sure!

    • Photo: Douglas Blane

      Douglas Blane answered on 18 Jun 2010:

      It’s not something I’d recommend.

      There’s a big difference in the amount of heat in flames. Some things burn pretty cool, others really hot.

      If it’s a fairly cool flame and the wet finger is in it for a short time, the heat goes into the water and doesn’t reach the finger.

      But no matter how not-too-hot a flame is – or how wet your finger – if you hold it in for any length of time your finger will singe, burn and sizzle.

    • Photo: Tom Hardy

      Tom Hardy answered on 22 Jun 2010:

      Well you don’t need to wet your finger, if you put a finger through a flame quickly, the flame simply doesn’t have time to transfer enough energy to the skin to cause pain. Wetting your finger just puts another barrier between the flame and skin. The energy will be transferred to the water first, protecting the skin, but only for a very short time as the water will evaporate!

Comments