Why You Can Hear the Temperature of Water
A science video maker in China couldn’t find a good explanation for why hot and cold water sound different, so he did his own research and published it.
Most people are quite good at distinguishing between the sound of a hot liquid and the sound of a cold one being poured, even if they don’t realize it.
“Every time I give a talk and I say, ‘Surprisingly, adults can tell the difference between hot and cold water,’ people just go like this,” said Tanushree Agrawal, a psychologist who, during a video call, mimicked audience members shaking their heads no. But research she completed at the University of California at San Diego demonstrated that three-fourths of the participants in her experiments could in fact detect the difference.
You can try it yourself. Put on your headphones or listen closely to your computer or phone’s speaker and hit play on this audio recording.
In general, cold water sounds brighter and splashier, while hot water sounds duller and frothier. But until recently no one really had evidence to explain the difference.
