Depth 1 · 35 s
Your hand can't tell
A metal spoon feels colder than a wooden one from the same drawer, but a thermometer shows they are the same. Then its marks on the Celsius scale - water freezes at 0 °C, your body is about 37 °C, water boils at 100 °C.
About this video
Pick up a metal spoon and a wooden spoon that have spent the night in the same drawer. The metal one feels colder. Yet a thermometer shows that both are at exactly the same temperature. Your skin doesn't sense temperature itself; it senses how fast heat leaves your hand, and metal carries heat away much faster than wood. That is why we measure temperature with a thermometer instead of guessing it by touch.
After the spoon puzzle, this short animation shows the Celsius scale that thermometers are marked with. Water freezes at 0 °C, a healthy human body is about 37 °C, and water boils at 100 °C at sea level. Between freezing and boiling there are 100 equal steps, and each step is one degree.
This video shows depth 1 of Temperature.
Learn TemperatureTranscript
- 0:00Two spoons from the same drawer. Which one is colder?
- 0:04Touch them, and the metal one feels colder.
- 0:08They shared a drawer all night. A thermometer says: the same.
- 0:12Metal pulls heat from your hand faster, so your hand is fooled.
- 0:17Water freezes at 0 degrees Celsius.
- 0:20Your body is about 37.
- 0:23Water boils at 100.
- 0:26Between them, 100 equal steps, called degrees.
- 0:29Your hand guesses. A thermometer measures.