It hurts!!

christopher riding

christopher riding

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Ok you Docters,students,slightly interested people?:- I live in a cold place, It's even cool here now!! Why does it hurt more when I hit my finger with a hammer (and lets call this a hyperthetical) when It's cold?

Is it that the nerve endings in my fingers are more sensitive, or is there an obvious reason?..... i dont know, or should I leave this to DR Karl?
 
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heat = more bloodflow...

also, in the cold, your entire body contracts itself up, so that when it is placed under the pressure of the hammer, it is already smaller/denser, has less give in it, thus gets crushed even more, can't heal as fast because of the bloodflow, etc..

no i'm not a quack.
 
Vicious_Fishes said:
heat = more bloodflow...

also, in the cold, your entire body contracts itself up, so that when it is placed under the pressure of the hammer, it is already smaller/denser, has less give in it, thus gets crushed even more, can't heal as fast because of the bloodflow, etc..

no i'm not a quack.
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haha good try, but no luck...

heat does in fact more bloodflow, but if you are relating that to pain, then it should actually be the other way around. more bloodflow to the area = more swelling and bruising = more pain. hence why you apply ice to injuries (except of course those muscular in nature) - to stop swelling and numb the pain.


i cant even start to try to explain the reasons behind why it hurts, but if someone knows, id be interested in hearing
 
leitch said:
haha good try, but no luck...

heat does in fact more bloodflow, but if you are relating that to pain, then it should actually be the other way around. more bloodflow to the area = more swelling and bruising = more pain. hence why you apply ice to injuries (except of course those muscular in nature) - to stop swelling and numb the pain.


i cant even start to try to explain the reasons behind why it hurts, but if someone knows, id be interested in hearing
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meh, it's a theory.

at least come up with a guess of your own man, jeez :p
 
Hurts

leitch said:
haha good try, but no luck...

heat does in fact more bloodflow, but if you are relating that to pain, then it should actually be the other way around. more bloodflow to the area = more swelling and bruising = more pain. hence why you apply ice to injuries (except of course those muscular in nature) - to stop swelling and numb the pain.


i cant even start to try to explain the reasons behind why it hurts, but if someone knows, id be interested in hearing
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Yeah, you guys, girls have got to agree.... It seems to hurt a lot more when It's cold?
But why?????????
 
i agree, it does hurt a lot more. as i said, i cant even begin to try to explain why, so i wont even try. id love to find out
 
It's probably something to do with the pain receptors reacting more sharply in the cooler conditions but i can't explain why...
 
A simple answer would be to stop hitting your fingers with hammers and just leave it as one of life's little mysteries (silly boy:rolleyes: ), but as a keen scientist myself I thought I'd look into this.

It seems that it's all to do with the temperature of the hammer. When it is cold the hammer is at it's most dense and thus causes more damage to your poor wee nerve endings. Add to that the psychological factor of it being cold in the first place - nothing good ever happens when it's cold, apart from skiing holidays and you're hardly likely to be using a hammer on the piste- Instead your brain is going to be feeling insecure and sensitive like the weight of the world is on it's shoulders. A hammer whack to the thumb will just make it want to curl up in a corner and cry like a five year old who's just popped a favourite balloon.

Conversely if it's hot, the density of the hammer will be a lot less as it will be closer to the solid/liquid transition zone. This will greatly cushion the impact and seeing as it's hot and sunny, the odds are, you're probably on a beach somewhere with a cool drink close by, getting blown. Sore thumb? Get real says your brain, it's Mojito time...

In conclusion, like most of life's important questions, it's all a mix of Psychology and Thermodynamics :cool:
 
PINT of Stella said:
It seems that it's all to do with the temperature of the hammer. When it is cold the hammer is at it's most dense and thus causes more damage to your poor wee nerve endings.
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hahha, and in that sense your nerves are more compressed and so therefore the pain is increased due to nerve ending compression factors.
 
PINT of Stella said:
...It seems that it's all to do with the temperature of the hammer. When it is cold the hammer is at it's most dense and thus causes more damage to your poor wee nerve endings...

...Conversely if it's hot, the density of the hammer will be a lot less as it will be closer to the solid/liquid transition zone. This will greatly cushion the impact and seeing as it's hot and sunny, the odds are, you're probably on a beach somewhere with a cool drink close by, getting blown. Sore thumb? Get real says your brain, it's Mojito time...
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I don't agree at all. The head of a metal hammer (lets say tempered steel) is solid at 0°C or 100°C. Thus, there be little variation in desity as compared with say a hammer head made of rubber or a polymer at the same two (0°C or 100°C) temperatures! Also I'd think the contact time of a hammer strike (lets say 1/10th of a second) is likey to be too short to impart any thermal variation between the hammer and a finger.

As such I believe all pain is physiological and more to do with cold V's warm fingers. I'm not a doctor (MD) so am not going to speculate why, but I seriously doubt any variation (increase/decrease) in pain has anything to do with the tempearture of head of the hammer (under normal atmospheric temperature/pressure range at sea level) striking the finger.
 
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Holy Crap! Someone took POSM seriously! :eek:

I'd hazard a guess it has something to do with your body being stiffer due to the cold?
 
toodles said:
Holy Crap! Someone took POSM seriously! :eek:
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haha, I believe christopher riding posted a geniune question and thought I'd answer it as accurately as possible, and did not quite agree with POSM answer, albeit thermodynaymics is not my field of science! ;)
 
Oracle said:
I don't agree at all. The head of a metal hammer (lets say tempered steel) is solid at 0°C or 100°C. Thus, there be little variation in desity as compared with say a hammer head made of rubber or a polymer at the same two (0°C or 100°C) temperatures! Also I'd think the contact time of a hammer strike (lets say 1/10th of a second) is likey to be too short to impart any thermal variation between the hammer and a finger.

As such I believe all pain is physiological and more to do with cold V's warm fingers. I'm not a doctor (MD) so am not going to speculate why, but I seriously doubt any variation (increase/decrease) in pain has anything to do with the tempearture of head of the hammer (under normal atmospheric temperature/pressure range at sea level) striking the finger.
Click to expand...

Heh heh heh, that post's just made my morning...
 
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