T HE A MERICAN U NIVERSITY IN C AIRO SPRING 2008 S CIENTIFIC T HINKING T ERM P ROJECT F IRE W ALKING Presented by: Asseel Hoda Fathy Hosam Seif

THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY IN CAIRO

SPRING 2008

SCIENTIFIC THINKING

TERM PROJECT

FIRE WALKING

Presented by:

Asseel

Hoda Fathy

Hosam

Seif

OUTLINE

Definition of Fire Walking Perspective of People Towards Fire Walking Fire Walking in Relation to Physics Fire Walking from Different Points of View The Experiment (video) References

OUTLINE


DEFINITION OF FIRE WALKING Fire Walking is the act of walking barefoot on

a bed of hot coals, or rocks without burning your feet.

OUTLINE


PERSPECTIVE OF PEOPLE TOWARDSFIRE WALKING In some cultures, Fire Walking is considered

as a part of a religious ritual; in other cultures, it is considered a test or a proof of faith.

For centuries, Fire Walking was considered to be a supernatural phenomena: people saw fire walking as a very courageous step and if they can walk on fire there is nothing they can’t face anymore.

However many people believe that Fire Walking can be interpreted through physics and has nothing to do with superpowers, faith, or willpower.

OUTLINE


FIRE WALKING IN RELATION TO PHYSICS Fire walking is similar to

putting your hand in a hot oven without getting burned, as long as you keep your hand in the air and don’t touch the oven you won’t get burned even if the oven is extremely hot.

When people walk on fire they usually do it with coal because coal has low thermal capacity, you don’t see people walking on metals because they are good thermal insulators.

OUTLINE


FIRE WALKING FROM DIFFERENT POINTS OF VIEW

People claim that your mind protect your feet from getting burnt.

They believe that you only need self improvement seminars before walking on fire to prepare you.

Positive thinking changes your body’s physiological state allowing fire walkers to walk on fire safely.

You have to shift your mind and believe positively that you are not going to get burnt.

“when you are in the right state of mind the blood flows through feet and takes the temperature away from the tissue.”

It is simply physics that keeps your feet from getting burnt.

It is related to the “conductivity of heat”.

Coal have poor thermal conductivity and low heat capacity even though they have high temperature they don’t have high energy as people might think.

Psychological Physical

OUTLINE


THE EXPERIMENT First people are prepared mentally to walk on the bed of coal

with an “Inspirational Speech”. While the people were preparing and hearing the speech the

interviewer avoided the speech. The coal’s temperature passed 1000 degrees. When people walked on fire they didn’t get burnt and found

it really exciting and motivating. When the interviewer walked on the fire he didn’t get hurt,

however he believes it is all about physics and the heat conductivity.

However the instructor implies that the interviewer’s confidence in the scientific theory is what protected him getting burnt, because he believes in it.

It doesn’t matter what you believe in whether you believe in the scientific method or that your mind protects you. The belief that you have in your mind that your wont get burnt is enough to protect you, you will be in a different physiological state.

OUTLINE


REFERENCES

En.wikipedia.org/wiki/fire-walking Skepdic.com/firewalk.html www.pitt.edu/~dwilley/fire/fire/txt/fire.html Skeptic Magazine- Michael Shermer http://www.michaelshermer.com/1999/09/

firewalking-across-hot-coals/ news.nationalgeographic.com/news/

2005/09/0901_050901_firewalking.html express.howstuffworks.com/mb-

firewalking.htm Bill Nye videos

THANK YOU

QUESTIONS?

Documents

T HE A MERICAN U NIVERSITY IN C AIRO SPRING 2008 S CIENTIFIC T HINKING T ERM P ROJECT F IRE W ALKING Presented by: Asseel Hoda Fathy Hosam Seif