Why does the burn of alcohol on a small cut go away temporally when blowing on it?

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Why does the burn of alcohol on a small cut go away temporally when blowing on it?

In: Physics

Anonymous 0 Comments

By blowing on it, you evaporate the alcohol faster. This reduces the contact time on the wound, and therefore reduces the pain.

Most of the time, alcohol needs very little contact time to disinfect. However, by blowing on it, you could be limiting the scope of the alcohol’s disinfecting power, but you also are blowing more germs right onto the open wound from your mouth.

Remember, the human mouth is one of the dirtiest places in the world. It is even worse than a dog or a cat mouth.