Why Do The First Splashes of Hot Water Feel Cold? March 24, 2006
Posted by atharkhan in : Tech , trackbackI was talking to someone and that topic came up. It reminded me that I had asked the Mad Scientist that very question about 6 years ago. Funny how a simple question will trigger an old memory like that.
Ed Bartlett, Post-doc/Fellow of Neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin-Madison answered it but I never checked until today. Here is Mr. Bartlett’s answer taken from the Mad Scientist Page:
I think that this phenomenon is physical rather than perceptual. The first few droplets that hit your skin evaporate upon contacting your skin, which is usually much warmer than the surrounding air. The large amount of heat energy required for evaporation is rapidly absorbed into the water from your skin. When the water changes from liquid to gas, all of this heat energy is lost from that part of your skin, making it temporarily cooler. The loss of heat is then sensed by receptors in your skin and the water feels cold. As you know, the main reason that you sweat is to cool your body, and this works through sweat glands secreting sweat onto the skin to evaporate.
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