Why can't you put two feet into a hot bath?
Question
If you run a bath that’s too hot, why can you cope with one foot in it, but it’s too hot if you put both feet in the bath?
Simon, Chiswick
Answer
** Definitive **
Name: Tony, Chertsey
Qualification: Too much hot water
Answer: It’s to do with the “pain gates” which are located at the bottom of the spinal cord, where the brain stem starts. There are at least two stimuli into those pain gates from the left and right leg regarding temperature. The stimuli which goes to the brain is less if there is one than if there is two feet in the hot water.