Experiments In Temperature Changes
Set up 3 bowls of water.
- One very warm
- One room temperature
- One very cold (add ice)
Don’t make any water so hot that it might burn. Put your right hand in the ice-cold water and your left hand in the almost-hot water. Wait for at least one minute, then put both hands into the middle bowl. How does the water feel?
Your right hand should have felt that the water in the middle bowl was hot while your left hand felt that it was cold. That’s because the skin does not sense “true” temperature like a thermometer. Instead, the skin compares temperatures from one moment to the next.
With every change in temperature, nerves in the skin send signals to the brain, telling about the temperature it feels. If the temperature is not too hot or too cold, those signals soon become weaker, and the skin feels that warmth or cold as normal. Since this effect takes place in the skin, two parts of the body can feel the same temperature as both “hot” and “cold” at the same time.
To bring some Super Cool Science to your school, filled with fun demonstrations of temperature change and effect, CLICK HERE