

Dipping your fingers in molten lead [pdf] - logic
http://www.falstad.com/cgi-bin/go.pl?http://www.wiley.com/college/phy/halliday320005/pdf/leidenfrost_essay.pdf

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Tuna-Fish
The best part of the article is the description of how after he had
successfully dipped his entire wet hand into the lead without being burnt, he
had to prove that it was really film boiling that protected his hand. By
touching the molten lead with a dry finger. Knowing full well he was going to
be badly burnt.

A true scientist.

~~~
devinj
I just thought it meant he was insane. I don't understand why he used his
hands first on the experiment, with or without water. He could have used
anything else-- something not attached to _him_.

~~~
RevRal
For some, once an idea germinates, it burgeons until it is performed.

At some level, this becomes a battle between the mind and the idea, like some
kind of stare down.

The scientist couldn't resist the urge of sticking his finger in there.

~~~
mkramlich
Neither can the serial killer.

~~~
RevRal
That brings in an entirely different human faculty (morality?). And in terms
of serial killers, abnormally functioning. The focus of my comment was on
people who are fairly normal in this regard. The comparison is silly without
mentioning this.

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merraksh
Very interesting read. The final part is a bit of a stretch:

 _I have long argued that degree-granting programs should employ "fire-
walking" as a last exam. The chair-person of the program should wait on the
far side of a bed of red-hot coals while a degree candidate is forced to walk
over the coals. If the candidate's belief in physics is strong enough that the
feet are left undamaged, the chairperson hands the candidate a graduation
certificate. The test would be more revealing than traditional final exams._

I think it should actually reveal the candidate's belief in his/her
_knowledge_ of physics, rather than his/her belief in physics.

~~~
devinj
I thought it was fairly obviously not meant to be taken seriously.

~~~
merraksh
As an instructor myself, I must admit I did take this just a little seriously.

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tlrobinson
My college physics professor did a similar experiment, but walking on burning
coals:

[http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/04/28/...](http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/04/28/gene-
firewalker/)

It certainly was fun to watch, but I didn't really remember what it was trying
to teach...

~~~
malkia
In Bulgaria, and in other countries on the Balkans, there is an old tradition
of walking on fire. It's called Nestinarstvo:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anastenaria>

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Goronmon
Mythbusters actually tested this out, using their own fingers no less. Was
definitely a cool thing to see.

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bloch
Video of similar experiment:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sN5aMjTCfo4>

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malkia
Loved it :) It's like Harry Potter in real live!

