Why do you not get burned when you quickly move hand over candle flame?

Answer 1

Your hand does not get burned because it is not over the flame long enough to raise the temperature of your skin and burn you. You are made of water, more than anything else, and it takes time to raise your temp. enough for burning to occur. Now, if it were a very hot flame, like from a welding torch, then it could happen VERY quickly...but a candle flame just isn't hot enough to burn you that quickly.

Answer 2

Because the time of heating is too short to even produce a feeling. To feel heat, it has to "burn" for about 0.5 - 1 sec. To cause burnings on Your skin, it has to burn for more than 1 sec. The temperature of the flame is about 400oC, but the produced heat is so small, that it can't hurt You when You move Your hand quickly over the flame.

Try this: move hand over the flame several times - You will start to feel the heat, even if Your hand is far away from the flame. That's because the heat is accumulated in Your palm, and every time You move it over flame, some more heat is added.

Answer 3

Because rate at which your body reaches thermal equilibrium with the flame is slow. If it was faster, you would get burned quicker. Passing your hands over quickly only raises the temperature slightly. Most of the time, the brain ignores such small stimuli.

Answer 4

Actually, you are already burning... it's just that the reaction time between the nerves on your skin and your brain causes a split second delay when 'processing' the fact that "it hurts" and "you are burning"...

Answer 5

because the brain takes a lil longer to register pain if u move ur hand b4 ur brain receives the info no pain hun now stop inflicting pain on ur person b4 u get hooked on the sensation

Answer 6

because your moving your hand over the heat at fast paced not giving the heat a chance to burn the epidermis of your hand.

Answer 7

Because the heat wouldn't have acquired enough time to heat the skin

Answer 8

not enough time to effect you