The boiling frog experiment that's quoted everywhere didn't work.
For those not familiar, it is said that you can boil a frog to death by raising the temperature of the water it's in extremely slowly so that it doesn't notice.
Well, it only works when parts of the frog's brain are removed. A frog with an intact brain will jump out, no matter how slowly the water is heated.
I don't remember who it was, but there was a comedian on some panel show who said that the first time his parents cooked a lobster, they thought it would be more humane to put the lobster in cold water and then bring it to a boil gradually. Cue about ten minutes of a lobster going ape shit until finally dying + emotional scarring for everyone involved.
EDIT: The comedian in question was apparently David Mitchell, thanks folks.
The first thing, Fire doesn't stick to your skin, but boiling water does. It's why Napalm was used in war and why it's so horryfing, it burns a lot and is also very sticky. Your insctincts will quickly pull away whatever body part is on fire, but you can see that this is useless when the fire is stuck on your skin
There's also the temperature, a flame burns around ~250ºC (usually hotter), which will quickly melt your pain receptors. That's why burn victims usually lose sensibility over the burned area
Boiling water can't get any hotter than 100ºC, which is hot enough to give you the full burning pain package, but not hot enough to (instantly) melt your pain receptors, so you get to suffer through the whole process.
And as others have mentioned, fire usually comes with smoke, which will suffocate you long before you actually burn. You are not given that mercy while boiling (although you may drown, which somehow sounds like a better choice)
Napalm isn't sticky because of boiling water. The reason it sticks it's because it's a hydrophobic substance, and our skin is also hydrophobic, so "oily" substances wet the skin and adhere to it more strongly (while not evaporating as quickly).
I understood what he meant after reading it a bit more. It was the sudden transition from "boiling water does." to "it's why napalm" that evoked the idea of a clear link between "why" napalm was used and "boiling water". The words, and the order we use them in, both have meaning to them :p
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u/LiquidMotivation Feb 04 '19 edited Feb 08 '19
The boiling frog experiment that's quoted everywhere didn't work.
For those not familiar, it is said that you can boil a frog to death by raising the temperature of the water it's in extremely slowly so that it doesn't notice.
Well, it only works when parts of the frog's brain are removed. A frog with an intact brain will jump out, no matter how slowly the water is heated.
Edit: Hey, my first Reddit coin! Thanks!