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?

Question

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

Answer 1

A good mental thought experiment that could help with understanding is to ask “How much volume of water will it take to cool down this hot object?” Framing a question like that makes you begin to consider the energy content of the hot object, not necessarily its temperature.

In fact, it is known that the temperature at the hottest part of a candle’s flame can be up to 2,500 °F, yet the flame could be put out by a single drop of water. Hence a wet finger is protected when touching a candle flame. But you can imagine that a hot pan out of the oven will be barely affected by a drop of water. The hot pan has tremendously more energy content than a flaming candle.