If hot things are just quickly moving particles, how do they damage our skin?
In: Other
From what i understand (im sure someone else can correct or add whatevers needed), when you touch these “hot”, rapidly moving molecules they cause the molecules of your body to also move rapidly (or heat up) because they are rapidly rubbing against them. Our cells (or the molecules that make them up) are not meant to move so rapidly. This rapid movement literally rips the cells apart. Some of these cells that are ripped apart are nerve cells. When these nerve cells are damaged, they send pain signals to your brain and you interpret it as a “burnning” sensation.
Excessive heat causes the cell membrane to lose shape and in turn the cell dies because the membrane no longer does its job iirc.
High heat is very bad for biological tissues. Ever cooked an egg? (Or really, anything, for that matter) See how the eggy bits change texture and composition as they heat up? What’s happening is that the proteins in the eggy bits are being denatured by the heat coming from your stove. Proteins are these big tricky molecules that are folded into a very specific 3D shape. But the folds are held in place by relatively weak hydrogen bonds, so if you introduce more energy – say, by heating up the protein – they unfold. If they unfold, they have different properties than they do in their folded state, and they also become useless for biological processes. Science has the lovely term “coagulative necrosis” to describe this manner of cell death; put simply, your cells cooked just like that egg. This is one of the main, but not only, reasons that high heat is very bad for living tissue.
Imagine you have a wall you want to stay intact. Now imagine you bring close a collection of steel balls bouncing back and forth. What will happen to the wall?
Well, “molecules” is a word to describe all of the different things the world is made of. Some molecules can form to make a rock, or maybe water, or maybe air, or maybe lava, or maybe snow….
When two things touch together there will always be a different temperature between them.
If you touch things that are too hot or too cold to each other you will get a reaction that makes one thing feel cold or one thing feel hot.
Now, if you hold an ice cube, your hand will feel cold for a moment but it is actually giving heat to the ice and melting it.
If you tried to pick up a stone sitting in the sun all day it could give away its heat and burn you as if you were the ice.
There are many things people think are hot and cold. What is something cold and something hot you are thinking of?
Heat damages cells and tissues which is bad. Nervous system goes ouchy and sends pain signals to the brain
This is the simple answer you’re looking for: because fast things have more energy than slow things.
Latest Answers