Eli5 How does tin foil work?

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Ok so I just had a lasagna in the oven for 45 minutes, covered in foil. I pulled it out and the tin foil isn’t even warm. How?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

There are actually 2 different reasons for this. Specific heat, and mass. Specific heat is how much heat a material can hold. A ceramic casserole dish can hold a lot of heat. If you grab it when its hot it has a huge reservoir of heat that will travel to your body (heat always travels towards the colder object). Aluminum has extremely low specific heat and it cannot hold much heat. It’s reservoir is small and when it travels to your hand it’s not enough heat to even register as being warm. Note: others have talked about conductivity. This is related, but slightly different. I actually just answered [a similar question](https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/lx93lu/eli5_why_does_metal_feel_cold_or_wet/) in this sub about conductivity.

The other variable that effects the size of that reservoir is the total mass of the object. Aluminum foil is very thin and its total mass is very low. A low mass with a low specific heat means that very little heat will transfer from it to a colder object (i.e. your hand).

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