Re: At what temperature does air have to be at to burn your skin/ hurt you?

Hi,

That is a good question, but unfortunately, I can't answer it precisely. To
a large extent, this will depend on the humidity of the air and oven mitt.
Water holds more heat than dry air and conducts heat much more rapidly, so
if your hands or the mitt are damp, more heat will be conducted to your
skin and you'll feel it at a lower temperature. 

According to the Canadian Public Health Agency, "hot water at 60�C
(140�F)... human skin burns severely in just 1 to 6 seconds... [at] 49�C
(120�F)...it takes at least 2 minutes to cause a severe burn" http://www.canadian-health-network.ca/servlet/ContentServer?cid=1126033676226&pagename=CHN-RCS/CHNResource/CHNResourcePageTemplate&c=CHNResource

In air, you can tolerate these temperatures for much longer (in 49�C air
you might get dehydrated and have other health problems, but your skin
won't physically burn... except for sunburn). I don't know, but I'd guess
that beyond that, you'll probably feel pain/discomfort at a lower temperature
than you'll actually burn yourself, but different people will define "pain"
or "discomfort" at much different temperatures. There is also the issue of
length of time. Professional chefs will often grab very hot pans and shove
them around where other people would scream in pain. They can do this
because they are used to feeling that pain and because they are very fast
on only touch the pan for a second. If they hold it for longer time, they
will get burned.

Now, I'm not recommending this, but if I wanted to know, I'd conduct some
experiments. What I'd use is a very fast thermometer, such as a small
thermocouple (something like this would work: http://www.omega.com/ppt/pptsc.asp?ref=TC-PVC_EPXOY_TC_PROBE
) I'd tape the tip of it to my hand and hold it near a lightbulb until it
started to feel uncomfortable. Definitely don't try this with anything
really hot and check with a parent or teacher before you try something like
this.

Or, to avoid experimenting on you or other people, go with the numbers from
Canada... test the oven mitts until they get to 60�C... in air, this might
not be painful, but the longer it takes a mitt to get to this temperature,
the longer it will take for it to get some hotter temperature as well. As
long as you compare different mitts to a standard temperature, your results
should be valid, even if 60�C won't really burn. 

Hope this helps. Stay safe.

mike