How can aluminum foil, a metal, be in a 375-degree oven and not be hot to the touch?
ohapuqa > 10-17-2018, 09:02 AM
It can’t. But the foil is no longer at 375 so it doesn’t feel very hot.
Aluminum is a good conductor of heat but thin foil is does not hold much heat energy and it has a large surface area. Because of this the 375F drops away very rapidly so by the time you touch it, it has already lost enough heat to not feel too hot.
If you want to test this theory you could heat water in a pan to 120F then make a cover a finger with a watertight layer of aluminum foil. If you dip your finger into the water it will feel hot, when you remove your finger the heat rapidly disappears.