Re: Why can your mouth resist heat better than your skin can?

Date: Tue Jun 8 12:39:58 1999
Posted By: Dan Berger, Faculty Chemistry/Science, Bluffton College
Area of science: General Biology
ID: 924826839.Gb

Message:

Why can your mouth resist heat better than your skin can?

Like when you drink hot coffee but if you spill it on you, you get burned.

This question relates to the difference between heat and temperature. Crudely speaking, temperature is a measure of the heat per molecule. So if you don't have many molecules, there's not much heat even if the temperature is high. This is why you can be struck by a tiny spark from a fire with no damage - but if a burning log falls on you, you're in a world of hurt.

When you sip coffee, you are taking in just a little at a time, so you are not getting very much total heat (and even so, you can burn your mouth if the coffee is hot enough). But if you spill the whole mug on your lap, all the heat from the coffee in the mug is applied to your lap at once.

	Dan Berger
	Bluffton College
	http://cs.bluffton.edu/~berger

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