Something Very Mind-Boggling and Frightening

[Galaxander96]

Hey guys,

Something I saw when watching NISMOTV's recent YT uploads of GT Academy 2016 really sent my jaw downward, and confused me at the same time. Take a look at this video:

At 14 minutes and 14 seconds, you can see just how big that fire is; very hot too. I don't think I'm even tall enough to jump over it, and I would likely choose to go around it and go through the tall vegetation if possible. Seriously, I would not be surprised that fire is at least 3,000 degrees or more, the base of the fire is literally white hot. How did those contestants not possibly suffer really bad 2nd degree burns if not worse? Further more, how did their clothes not catch fire when jumping over that fire pit? That's the confusing part; they showed little to no signs of severe burns or injury, besides one guy falling down past the fire, and their clothes did not catch fire either.

I can tell that the fire is certainly not a special effect, as you can see the clear heat haze coming up from the open flames; I'm convinced that the fire is 100% real, unless I'm very much mistaken. I think it's much more than daunting, it's likely seems to be downright dangerous

So there you go, my question is basically how did they not appear to get burned/injured by the fire, and how their clothes did not catch fire as a result of going through it.

I'm looking forward to what you guys have to say.

 

[Imari]

Seriously, I would not be surprised that fire is at least 3,000 degrees or more, the base of the fire is literally white hot.

Probably not, it's probably just the brightness of the fire overwhelming the camera sensor. It's probably a normal fire. It's quite hard to make a white hot fire, and I doubt that they bothered in the middle of the jungle.

Given that they're all sweaty and wet, they'd be fine. Lick your finger and see how slowly you can run it through a candle flame before it starts to get uncomfortable. You'd be surprised at how much heat the skin can dissipate if it's only for a short period. They're in the flame for less than a second. They'd be totally fine, maybe singe the hairs on their legs a bit. It's a psychological barrier, not a physical one.

If you want to see something interesting, look up firewalking. It's much more bizarre and extreme than this, and people do sometimes get hurt doing it. But if you can understand why firewalking is possible, then you'll understand why this was never going to be a real threat to the participants.

 

[Galaxander96]

Probably not, it's probably just the brightness of the fire overwhelming the camera sensor. It's probably a normal fire. It's quite hard to make a white hot fire, and I doubt that they bothered in the middle of the jungle.

Given that they're all sweaty and wet, they'd be fine. Lick your finger and see how slowly you can run it through a candle flame before it starts to get uncomfortable. You'd be surprised at how much heat the skin can dissipate if it's only for a short period. They're in the flame for less than a second. They'd be totally fine, maybe singe the hairs on their legs a bit. It's a psychological barrier, not a physical one.

If you want to see something interesting, look up firewalking. It's much more bizarre and extreme than this, and people do sometimes get hurt doing it. But if you can understand why firewalking is possible, then you'll understand why this was never going to be a real threat to the participants.

Oh ok, so it's kinda like touching a hot stove top burner for a fraction of a second? I remember one time I did that for a fraction of a second, it's not too bad, but anything more than a second is really painful. It seems like the moisture from the muddy water temporarily dissipates some of the fire's heat, making it okay for split second crossings. I might be mistaken though, it's 4 am US Central Time, and I'm a bit tired. The good news is, I've always been talented in the sciences throughout grade school, thermodynamics, chemistry and physics are second nature.

 

[Imari]

I remember one time I did that for a fraction of a second, it's not too bad, but anything more than a second is really painful.

It's not even that bad. Air is a very poor conductor of heat, so even if it's very hot it takes a while for enough heat to transfer into the skin. Touching a stovetop will immediately transfer a lot of heat into your skin and do significant damage. Think about the difference between putting your fingers in a pot of boiling water at 100°C, and putting your fingers in an oven at 100°C. The first will get you some nasty burns. The second will feel kinda warm.

Like I said, try it with a candle. Start running your fingers through the flame quickly, and you'll see exactly how little the flame does. You can actually put out a candle flame by pinching it between your fingers without any real pain.



http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/04/10/3472165.htm

Getting burnt is lot about how quickly heat is transferred into your body, as your skin is actually decent at dissipating low to medium levels of heat. That means you need to be touching something that is high temperature, but that also has high conductivity so that it can transfer the heat quickly. Touching metals and liquids is generally bad, but things like gases or wood can be just fine. For short periods at least.

Long story short, you must consider both the heat and the conductivity of an object (or gas/liquid) to know how effective it will be at burning you.

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

Also they're covered with mud too, which is a nice coating against heat

 

[pakicote]

I actually went through that fire, Oscar from team Mexico here. It was a small fire with burning wood and branches, the jump was no longer than 2 meters or 3, so nothing serious. Plus, we were all wet by the time we got to that part.

But that test was brutal, the worst part, the wet cargo net, that freaking thing weighted a ton, plus the mud, you could hardly move.... To this day, I still have the scars all red on my knees from that day. The weird thing is that you don't even notice the pain until later, maybe because of all the adrenaline.

 

[Galaxander96]

I actually went through that fire, Oscar from team Mexico here. It was a small fire with burning wood and branches, the jump was no longer than 2 meters or 3, so nothing serious. Plus, we were all wet by the time we got to that part.

But that test was brutal, the worst part, the wet cargo net, that freaking thing weighted a ton, plus the mud, you could hardly move.... To this day, I still have the scars all red on my knees from that day. The weird thing is that you don't even notice the pain until later, maybe because of all the adrenaline.

And yet, Rob Barff said in that same video "Although this looks like a physical challenge on the surface, it's not. It's all about the psychological element." I call BS on that whole statement, given all the competitors felt like they went to Hades and back.