Misconceptions About Heat
Why Physics Stack Exchange recommends it
Physics Stack Exchange users link it when explaining why metal feels colder than air or wood at the same temperature, and why touch is a poor thermometer.
Recommended by 2 people across 2 different months, 2014 to 2020.
What it is
A short Veritasium explainer on a common confusion about heat: when we touch an object and it feels hot or cold, we sense the rate of heat flow into or out of our skin, not the object's temperature. Presenter Derek Muller compares items like a cake tin, a cake, a book and a metal object, and asks people on the street what they think.
What people said
Recommends Yababaa · 2014-06 · Physics Stack Exchange · on “Why does cold metal seem colder than cold air?”
Veritasium has decent video about it, he compares a cake tin with the cake itself and a book and a metal object. He then asks different people on street what they think [this video]
Recommends Nathan Wilkinson · 2015-08 · Physics Stack Exchange · on “Would a solid door handle get hotter than a hollow one if there is a fire behind the door?”
I am a designer (mechanical engineer) who works for a fire company. My boss asked me to develop and build a new door handle and lock mechanism. Which I did successfully. It has a 16mm Solid vertical handle on the right of the door. My boss came and viewed the work the first thing out of his mouth was "We will need a hollow handle so that it doesn't get as hot." At this point we had a discussion as to whether changing the handle from solid to hollow would change the maximum temperature. I argued that by only changing from solid to hollow none of the heat transfer mechanisms will decrease (convection, conduction & radiation) and that only the time it takes to reach maximum temperature (or ambi
Cites Nathan Wilkinson · 2015-08 · Physics Stack Exchange · on “Would a solid door handle get hotter than a hollow one if there is a fire behind the door?”
Your answers were very good and what I expected. I totally agree a solid handle stores more energy. Which when touched will be available for transfer into your hand and the longer the handle is touched the more of this energy gets transferred and the more the user gets "burned". Veritasium did a great youtube video on this. [this video] Fun fact, in the fire standards there is no maximum temperature requirement for any part of the fire, be it being touched by the user or not.
Cites user249968 · 2020-03 · Physics Stack Exchange · on “Why do our hands feel warm when we rub them?”
Our hands are the most common source for measuring heat transfer $^{\dagger}$ in our day-to-day life (they do not measure temperature, though they do indicate relative temperature). Now consider the following: When we rub our hands their temperature rises due to the friction. Now if there is equal increment in the temperature of both the hands then there should be no flow of heat (zeroth law of thermodynamics). Hence we should feel no difference than usual as there is no heat, rather due to there being a temperature gradient heat should flow out of our hands to surrounding and our hands should feel cooler (assuming that surrounding has same temperature as our normal body temperature). So why
Cites user249968 · 2020-03 · Physics Stack Exchange · on “Why do our hands feel warm when we rub them?”
@SolomonSlow I have watched a veritasium video [this video] and even experimented it myself (though no very professionally).