At the risk of sounding like I’m not trying to figure things out, how does something we use and take for granted work? I was drinking coffee recently and I was pouring into a styrofoam cup. As I poured the scalding hot liquid in, I felt nothing. I looked at the cup and it was nearly paper thin but the coffee was hot enough to cause a third degree burn. I let it cool but I had to marvel that I could get my skin next to something that extreme and that a seemingly negligible and at first appearance ineffective barrier against anything could work so efficiently! It’s a great age we’re living in. So how does it do it? l Thanks.
Styrofoam is full of little bubbles of air, and dead air is an excellent insulator. See how close you can bring your finger to the surface of the hot coffee.
A truly elegant explanation.
Thanks, dmartin! I really enjoyed the last touch" “See how close…”
What better example could you have used!!
and I’m probably not going to be doing that anytime soon but air! The most impressive explanation and indeed situation is often the simplest.
Just tried dmartin’s suggestion - I put my finger very close to the surface of a freshly nuked mug of coffee.
Hot, but tolerable, just as the teach predicted.
Except styrofoam is even better. The little bubbles are trapped in styrofoam and cannot move. Free air moves around and carries heat with it, so placing your finger 1mm above the surface of hot coffee feels hotter.
Which is why the answer specified “dead air.”