Why is it that if we wet our fingers before putting out a candle, we don’t get burned, but if we grab a hot pan out of the oven with a wet oven mitt, we get burned?
In: Physics
Your mistaking thermal energy and heat.
A flame may be very HOT but only a thin layer of gas on the outside of the flame is generating that heat. Reduce the heat of those gas particles and the flame goes out, and because the liquid on your fingers has a much higher heat capacity than the gas, you don’t feel the burn.
A hot pan may not be as HOT, but the thermal energy is way bigger. You have a fuck ton of particles through the entire metal pan that are hot and will give off their heat very easily. The layer of water that could absorb the heat soaks it all up, and now the rest of the water in the towel has no where to evaporate into so it keeps spreading the heat, eventually to your hand.
A dry cloth is safe again because the thermal capacity. It doesn’t transfer heat very well, so you could also use that to put out an candle at the risk of getting it dirty OR putting it in contact with something hot enough to light it on fire (another property of heat)
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