I’m thinking that no, it doesn’t. Which begs the question of why we do it? Is it a psychological thing?
Yes, it does. By blowing over it, you evaporate some of its water, which cools it down. See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enthalpy_of_vaporization
Thank you.
I think I saw a show 20 or so years ago that tried to debunk this and obviously either they messed up, or I wasn’t paying attention.
(The show was called Brainiac).
You’ve been unclear on a fundamental concept of basic physics for ~20 years? Because a TV show said so? 😶
I mean it was called Brainiac and it did have John Tickle walking on top of a pool of custard. Are you suggesting I was wrong to use that as my foundation for all knowledge??
You can test your hypothesis of “no, it doesn’t” pretty easily. Feel free to report back with results and method used.
Methods:
- Make a cup of Hot Chocolate
- Get two spoons, put them in your hot chocolate to warm up to remove the variable of heat transferring into the spoon.
- Take one spoon out, fill it up, blow on it for a few seconds, then put it in your mouth.
- Take the second one out, leave it out for the same amount of time you would have if you had blown on it, then put it in your mouth.
Report on temperature difference. If you had an instant-read thermometer you could even be more certain of the results.
Air cooled engines quite literally stay cool by being blown on.
It does. Heat conduction is faster when the temperature difference is large. Air soaks up a lot of heat, so still air is a poor heat conductor. If you’re blowing it around, you’re increasing the amount of fresh, colder air that can interact with the food.
One spoonful and a couple of breaths is small enough stuff to have a relatively small effect and a lot of error margin, though.
I would think it does, because you are blowing comparatively cold air on it, which will transfer some heat out of the food.
