Weird experiment 'proves' humans can hear the difference between hot and cold water

Humans can tell the difference between hot and cold water being poured just by the sounds they make, and someone has set up an experiment to prove it.

There's all sorts of little details in this world that you just know, even if you don't know how you know it.

One of these is the different noises made by hot and cold water when they're being poured.

Humans can hear the ever-so-slight difference and tell which one ought to have a teabag dropped in it and which could just be quaffed immediately.

If you're a little bit sceptical about this then don't worry, there's an easy experiment you can do right now to prove that you really can tell the difference.

First, you'll want to be somewhere reasonably quiet where you can hear clearly without interference, otherwise it'll disrupt your hearing and could put you off.

TikToker @curedeggyolk set up this doozy of a scientific demonstration, having two glasses filled with water, one hot and one cold.

They then challenged people to close their eyes and just listen to the different sounds they made as they poured, not telling the audience which one they'd just heard and instead suggesting they watch the video back a second time with open eyes to see the evidence.

First things first, it's a clever move from the TikToker as it essentially doubles their viewing count, and at time of writing the video has amassed over 25 million views, so that's plenty of folks learning this titbit of information.

Anyhow, you're supposed to watch the video, close your eyes when told to and not cheat by sneaking a peek as the water is being poured.

This experiment only works if you behave and don't peek, then listen to the sounds of the water being poured and think about whether you just heard the glass of hot and cold water being emptied.

Just listen hard and make up your mind.

At this point you might be wondering what the science behind all of this is, and don't worry because we have the answer for you.

Cold water is several times more viscous than hot water so while they produce the same sound frequency when poured they do it at different strengths.

This gives hot and cold water slightly different sounds which the human ear can detect, so you know which one is cold and which is hot just by the noise.

Then again, it seems the experiment isn't perfect because there were some folks in the comments admitting they got it wrong, but at least now they learned something... and gave this TikToker a few extra views.

Featured Image Credit: TikTok/CuredEggYolk

Topics: Weird, TikTok, Science

Joe Harker

Joe graduated from the University of Salford with a degree in Journalism and worked for Reach before joining the LADbible Group. When not writing he enjoys the nerdier things in life like painting wargaming miniatures and chatting with other nerds on the internet. He's also spent a few years coaching fencing. Contact him via [email protected]

@MrJoeHarker