Category Kids Queries

A chemist named Wilbur Scoville developed a scale to answer this very question in 1912. His system measures the heat factor of chili peppers in multiples of 100 “Scoville units,” as rated by human tasters with iron tongues! The higher the rating, the hotter the pepper. Here’s a peppering of peppers from all parts of the Scoville scale spectrum:

Green Bell Pepper: 0 Scoville units

Tabasco Pepper: 50,000 Scoville units

Jalapeno Pepper: 5,000 Scoville units

Habanaga Pepper: 500,000 Scoville units

Ghost Pepper: 1,000,000 Scoville units

The Ghost Pepper is so hot that it will burn your skin unless you wear gloves. The capsaicin concentration in ghost pepper is even higher than the amount used in pepper spray, a nonlethal weapon wielded by police.

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That bowl of four-alarm chili is waging chemical warfare on your tongue. Chili peppers contain capsaicin (pronounced cap-SAY-ah-sin), a substance that triggers the sensations of pain and heat when it touches your tongue (or, in the case of the hottest peppers, even your hands). Pepper plants likely evolved this compound to keep away nibbling animals. Spicy-food connoisseurs build up a resistance to capsaicin by gradually eating progressively hotter peppers until they can nibble thermonuclear meals while working up only a mild sweat.

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Because they’re not real meals. Each dish, dessert, and drink has been carefully prepared and arranged by a “food stylist,” a special food photographer who uses all sorts of sneaky tricks to make dishes look scrumptious for commercials, cookbooks, and menus. The stylist stuffs baked chicken with napkins to plump it up and paints burgers with burnt matches to stimulate grill marks. Milk is substituted with kindergarten glue so cereals don’t look soggy. Dish soap is dabbled on the surface of drinks to give that fresh-poured look. Um, yum?

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Your brain is split into two symmetrical (or mirror-image) halves known as hemispheres, connected by a ribbon of white matter known as the corpus callosum, through which both halves communicate. It’s common knowledge that the right side of the brain is the source of music concertos, masterpiece paintings, and deep emotions, while the left side specializes in solving logic problems and dealing with numbers. But in this case, common knowledge is incorrect. While the various lobes have their specialties (language, memory, sensory perception, etc.), experiments show that both hemispheres pull their weight during every task. While the left hemisphere excels at detecting words in sounds, for example, the right hemisphere detects the emotions in those words.

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It’s just an unfriendly reminder that you have fillings (or some other metal dental work). When two different metals come into contact, an electrical charge passes between them. That’s the zap you feel when tinfoil touches the metal in tour mouth. The jolt travels from the tin to your tooth’s nerve through the filling. People without dental work won’t experience this sensation – yet another reason to brush and floss regularly!

The electric shock travels from the foil into the filling or crown, and then into the nerve. The shock is then sent to the brain as a pain sensation, because that’s what it is, pain. The final step in the process is to remove the foil and NEVER do it again.

The reason your friend didn’t feel any pain is because they more than likely haven’t had any dental work done in the way of fillings or crowns. Essentially, if your mouth is in perfect condition and has never been touched by a dentist, you will feel no pain from chewing aluminum foil.

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Caffeine – a chemical extracted from coffee beans, cacao (the source of chocolate), cola nuts (used in, you guessed it, cola), and tea leaves – offers no nutritional value, yet some adults can’t start their day without a jolt from their cup of joe. The caffeine in coffee, tea, energy drinks, pop, and chocolate stimulates the central nervous system, delivering a boost energy while clearing away the cobwebs of drowsiness (which is why people feel charged up after chugging down a caffeinated drink). But caffeine’s effects are temporary. Once the caffeine wears off, you’re left feeling drained and foggy. You might even have a headache. Drinking too much caffeine will cause your heart to race and your hands to shake. And good luck getting to sleep if you slurp a soda before bedtime.

Picture Credit : Google