Firewalking Hurts...

so, the other day i see some short blurb on an educational channel about firewalking, roughly conveying that if there is not prolonged contact with coals, one's skin will not burn, blah blah.

i was only half-paying attention :wink:

but then the scientist demonstrates his certainty by taking a short jaunt over a bed of embers which are barely visible, glowing beneath a sheet of ash. his feet were completely unharmed.

his image mocks me...the challenge of a mousey looking scientist performing such a righteous act. inconceivable!

-----
as life has it, last night i'm drinking with some siblings of psyche by the river, with a roaring fire, and feel compelled to try. kick the logs away until there lies a bed of embers, red hot, devoid of noticeably accumulated ash.

first i just kick the coals. then a quick one step over the corner.

then two quick steps of contact, nicely warmed tootsies accompanying in lieu of injury.

i figure three steps will suffice for an "official" firewalk.

on the third step two small embers lodge in my leftmost toes, and burn the most tender skin on my calloused foot fairly badly :| no amount of beer or cannabis could help...only cold water.
----

thank god for ice and aloe vera today.
---
oh, and despite the small risk of discomfort, i highly recommend trying it. VERY exhilarating...felt like some indian fakir warming up before his levitation act or something, haha.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire-walking

------

You're a genious. Oh wait...no you're not :bigteeth: . You'd have to be drunk to do something that stupid, that was obviously going to happen.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by wombing

on the third step two small embers lodge in my leftmost toes, and burn the most tender skin on my calloused foot fairly badly :| no amount of beer or cannabis could help...only cold water.
[/b]

---

Lmao, what bad luck :)

*laughs* bad luck indeed.
---
badass...i said we were in the process of drinking, not that i was drunk...my own beer was almost untouched at the time of the attempt.

next time i will rake the coals so that the surface is more uniform, and will almost certainly avoid any injury whatsoever.

walking over a gigantic iron frying pan would be stupid.
not so much walking over a poorly conducting layer of wood, albeit redhot wood..

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by wombing

badass...i said we were in the process of drinking, not that i was drunk...my own beer was almost untouched at the time of the attempt.
[/b]

---

That's not really something to show off about, at least before you had an excuse. :wink:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by wombing

next time i will rake the coals so that the surface is more uniform, and will almost certainly avoid any injury whatsoever.
[/b]

---

Yeah, maybe next time you should think about not actually walking over a load of hot coals, I know it sounds crazy but it may be worth a try.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by wombing

walking over a gigantic iron frying pan would be stupid.
not so much walking over a poorly conducting layer of wood, albeit redhot wood..
[/b]

---

uh...yeah :bigteeth:

You know there is a trick to that, don't you?

An Engineer with IBM once explained it to me. It has to do with the Density Mass of the Heat in question. He gave this example. When baking the Thanksgiving Turkey, you can reach into the Oven. The AIR at 350 Degrees will not burn you, not unless you bake your hand in their for some time. However, if you touch the iron grating, or the wall of the Oven -- YIKES! You'll easily raise a blister. So, what is the difference?

The Air has very little density mass. Not very molecules are available to pass the heat into your skin by Convection. The Iron Grating or the Wall of the Oven, though, has a very high Density and Mass and is a solid sheet of molecules willing to pass heat into your skin from Convection.

Which brings us to Fire Walking. The 'Experts' (the Scammers) burn down logs until they are merely the last flakey embers of spent fuel -- fluffy ashes with just enough red in them to still look like fire. But as far as Mass Density is concerned, they are practically as insubstantial as Air -- like reaching into the Oven but not touching either grating or wall. There are not enough molecules to pass on enough heat to give one a serious burn.

But people unfamiliar with the Scam will spread out logs that are still solid wood. Ouch! What are you? Fucking crazy! NEVER do shit like that until you know what the 'trick' is.

There is a way to get back at the Scammers. Take handfulls of smooth pebbles and toss them into the fire before they have the chance to rake them into their fiery walk way. All it takes is for just one of those pebbles to be raked into their Path, and they will get a nice 2nd Degree Blister they won't soon forget!

Heheh. Way to go, Asher. :chuckle:

*laughs and curtsies* thanks oneironaut...
---

Quote:

---

But people unfamiliar with the Scam will spread out logs that are still solid wood. Ouch! What are you? Fucking crazy! NEVER do shit like that until you know what the 'trick' is[/b]

---

correct me if i am wrong, but a piece of hardwood, and that piece of hardwood as a glowing coal still possess moreorless the same density, do they not?

a hardwood coal at its very densest is still not capable of conducting enough heat to burn one's feet-provided there is limited exposure.

---
i merely lacked the layer of ash neccessary to avoid injury on longer firewalks.
it is not neccessary on walks under ten feet or so.

*edit* oh, and a significant proportion of people i meet tell me at one point or other that i am fuckin crazy.

i tend to disagree, but you may take either stance you wish :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by wombing

oh, and a significant proportion of people i meet tell me at one point or other that i am fuckin crazy.
i tend to disagree, but you may take either stance you wish :)
[/b]

---

I think pretty much everyone here would go for crazy, but maybe you're incredibly clever, and everyone else is crazy?