Eli5 when temperature is just how much molecules move, why can our skin be permanently damaged if they move to much, aka, you get a burn.
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Because your skin is composed of many different, very complex molecules. These molecules are sensitive to disruption and if they move too much can be damaged.
Molecules of our skin are of various kinds. Heat makes them move and colline with each other, while also speeding up or contributing to chemical processe that damage our skin.
Other answers are correct but I like to think of this in its simplest terms. Consider getting hit by a tennis ball at 10mph, mildly inconvenient but not likely to do much damage. Now consider being hit by a tennis ball at 1000mph, there’s a good chance that’ll kill you.
Tennis balls are much bigger than molecules but the same principle applies. Higher temperature means higher speed molecules. Higher speed molecules means more damage caused on impact.
When big molecules start to move really fast, they often break up into smaller molecules, or combine with other small molecules to form different molecules. The forces that make molecules move can overcome the forces that hold the molecules together.
Molecules are much smaller than the cells, capillaries, and so on in your skin.
Imagine if you microwaved a plastic bottle full of water. Eventually….kaboom. The water isn’t “damaged” from moving around, but the bottle is blown apart and destroyed.
Same concept with your cells and blood vessels rupturing from heat.
don’t think that’s how it works, it’s more like if too much energy from an external source gets transferred to your skin it gets damaged
Pick up a ship in a bottle and shake it. You’ll find that the rapid movement of molecules can be very damaging indeed.
You are held together with van der walls (very weak compared to how metals are bound) forces, the intensity of the heat that is given off by a source can affect these bonds. When the source goes over a certain temperature threshold within a given distance these weak bonds are broken.
Every cell im your body is made of molecules. For a cell to be “alive” and functional those molecules have to be arranged in a very specific manner and move in specific ways (temperature) or they won’t interact properly. Now increase the movement (temperature) at random and you can cause havock in the cell.
Yes, the cell has mechanisms to make it’s molecules go back to the right arrangements, but this has a limit. The cell dies if the molecules move too much and leave their arrangement.
Think of a loosely mounted Lego set. Now trow it inside a container and shake it vigorously. Open container and you have pieces all around. It’s not the set anymore. It can be similar, but can not make the same things.
Every injury is just “moving molecules”, it’s moving them in a way that tears apart existing structures that your body may or may not be able to stitch back together
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