A little water experiment like this in rainy weather times? Why not?
For this experiment you will need three bowls, big enough to bring down one or two hands.
Pour hot water in one, cold in another and room-temperatured in the third.
Put one hand in the warm water and the other in the cold. Hold them there for 30 seconds.
Then place both hands in the room-temperatured water. Do your hands feel the same?
Explanation: Human temperature sensation is sensitive to change. For example, when your hand is moved from cold to warm water, the body signals that the water is very hot – even if it is not.
Experiment: To make this study an experiment, try answering any of the questions below. Don’t forget to set a hypothesis and explain the result.
- What is the shortest time you have to keep your hands in the hot or cold water to achieve this effect?
- How do you feel if you hold your hands for a long time in the warm and cold water, respectively, before immersing them in the room-temperature water?
- How fast can you feel the temperature change?
- What is the smallest temperature difference you can have between the water in the bowls?
- Does it work if you dip one finger in each bowl only?