Why does aluminum foil never get hot to the touch. You can leave it in the oven and touch it directly out of the oven without it feeling hot. Why is this?
In: Physics
A lot of FANTASTIC explanations here, but none are ELI5.
The aluminum that the foil is made of is special because it can go from hot to cold SUPER fast, so as soon as the oven door opens up, it starts to get cool enough to not burn you.
Plus small things that have a lot of air nearby can cool down faster, so the foil being so thin means the air touches almost all of it at once and helps it cool even faster so when your finger made mostly of water touches it, there’s not enough heat in the special aluminum left over to burn you.
So those two reasons together are why mommy and daddy can touch foil, but don’t ever ever ever touch the oven when we’re cooking, it’s VERY dangerous and I wouldn’t want you getting hurt.
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