My tongue is tougher than my fingers?

[Spec]

Just noticed something the other day...My tongue endures heat better than my fingers...Wtf?!

Here's the situation. I am cooking some spaghetti sauce, I take a spoonfull to taste it, drop some one my finger and almost burn myself until I lick it off real quick...Then I think...wtf? I take a spoonful again, and then taste it without burning my tongue... And if I had dropped that spoonfull on my hand, I would have burned myself...

How come?


Spec.

[Lorizael]

The tips of your fingers are actaully some of the most sensitive areas on your body. Very hand that, sometimes.

[BeBMan]

Because your tongue is....wet?

[b etor]

QFTx2

[Spec]

Originally posted by BeBro
Because your tongue is....wet?

Not enough water on there to make a difference imo. I takes not a second to transfer heat.

Take ice for example. I can keep it on my tongue for hours without it freazing solid. I cant do that to an injury without having the body part getting numb. I eat ice all the time in summer, and my tongue never became numb.

Spec.

[Lazerus]

quite the opposite with me, things like hot cheese burn my mouth really easily and i'm sweating and in discomfort for awhile afterwards yet i can burn my hands to the point the flesh melts on my fingers (yes several long term scars not just running your hand through a flame) with nothing more then gritted teeth and very little afterpain since i usually end up cutting the blister open to remove the puss and using alcohol wipes to clean it myself.

[Spec]

Sissy tongue wimp.



Spec.

[Lazerus]

Yeah i know i avoid spices and stuff like the plague aswell because of it lol. I remember last time i went to an Indians for a team night out and i drank around 4 pints of water during the meal because of a "slightly hot" variety. The asian girl that i usually mock constantly was sitting next to me and took great delight in it, although she did say it was alot hotter then what most places do it so i felt abit better lol.

[Dis]

I'm a tongue wimp. I hate hot food (hot as in hot, not as in hot)

if you are still confused I hate food that is of a high temperature.

[snoopy369]

Ice: Tongues melt it faster, and the water DOES make a difference here. Ice melts much faster in water than touching the skin.

Moreover though, it's that the tongue is meant to take hot/cold better... otherwise you'd burn/freeze way too often

[Blake]

I think the tongue is pretty effective at dispersing heat. I mean in various mammals and reptiles it tends to be used for just that purpose.

It stands to reason that the tongue is highly conductive to heat otherwise it would not fulfill this role very well. This means the heat is safely dispersed.

With the ice cubes - the tongue has a tremendous ability to HEAT them. It's body temperature, meaning, part of the core circulatory system. Extremities can be cooled, the blood can be colder - sometimes significantly colder - than the core temperature. Not so with the tongue, it pretty much remains at core body temperature because of that core blood flow, meaning unlike extremities which cool down, the tongue can heat ice all day (or until you become hypothermic hahah).

[molly bloom]

Re: My tongue is tougher than my fingers?

Originally posted by Spec
Just noticed something the other day...My tongue endures heat better than my fingers...Wtf?!

Are you surprisingly popular with women ?