An Experiment

Set up 3 glasses, each containing water at a different temperature. One should be hot (not unbearably hot though), the other should be cold, and one should be in the middle at a lukewarm temperature. Stick one hand in the hot glass and the other in the cold glass. Wait for approximately 30 seconds until your hands experience the complete sensations of hot and cold. Then take each hand out of their respective glasses and put them in the lukewarm glass. What do you feel?

The hand that was in the hot glass should experience the lukewarm water as cold while the opposite will occur with the hand that was in the cold water initially. This shows how temperature is actually a figment of our imagination- our perception of hot and cold, high and low temperatures, are relative to what we have previously experienced. The an increase/decrease in temperature is what causes us to experience hot/cold. How would Goldilocks have fared with the three bears' porridge had she known about the outcome of this experiment?