Heat Grid

LOCATION: MIND ZONE ON THE LOWER LEVEL

Copper Tubing:

Copper transmits warm and cold quite well.  Touching each tube separately proves that neither is very hot or cold.

We constructed a grid of alternating warm and cold copper tubing.  When you press your hands on the grid it feels extremely hot, like you’re being burned – but it’s only an illusion!

Research has shown that skin has two types of temperature sensing cells – those that sense extreme temperatures and those that sense moderate temperatures.  When you touch several tubes of the Heat Grid at the same time, the warm and cold tubes cause the moderate temperature sensors to fire.  However, the large difference in temperature between the warm and cold tubes also causes the extreme temperature sensors to fire.  It seems that when the brain receives these mixed messages, it thinks it must be touching something intensely hot, creating the illusion of being burned.