Befuddle the Senses (Super Science Experiments)

You will need:

1. 3 large jars (2 litres)
2. 2-3 bowls of ice
3. 2 litres of cold water
4. 2 litres of hot water (40° Celsius)
5. 2 litres of normal room temperature water

Try confusing your senses with this experiment and understand how the brain interprets touch.

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Line up your 3 large jars. Label them ‘Ice Cold’, ‘Tepid’ and ‘Hot’.
2. Pour the cold water and ice into the jar labelled Ice Cold.
3. Pour room temperature water into the jar labelled Tepid.
4. Pour hot water into the jar labelled Hot.
5. Line up the jars so that you may plunge your left hand into the jar of hot water and right hand into the jar of ice cold water. Leave your hands inside the respective jars for at least 2 minutes.
6. After 2 minutes, remove both your hands simultaneously and plunge both of them into the middle jar filled with the room temperature water. How do you feel?

RESULT

Oddly enough, the hand which was in the ice cold water will feel warm and the hand which was in the hot water will feel cool even though both your hands are in the same tepid water. This is a result of sensory adaptation. This pheno-menon is more targeted to the hands, since the fingertips have over 25,000 nerve receptors/square cm. These receptors transfer physical sensations to the somatosensory cortex in the brain. Each nerve ending has different types of receptors to detect heat, cold, etc. These receptors are responsible for sending signals of heat and cold to the brain so that our sensitivity to temperature may adapt to the surrounding environment.