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'Firewalking' is the act of walking barefoot over a bed of hot embers or stones. It has a long history in many cultures as a test or proof of faith, and is also used in modern motivational seminars and fund-raising events.

Contents

History

Explanation

Factors that prevent burning

Risks when doing firewalking improperly

Records

References

See also

External links

History

Firewalking is practised

★ by African-born Hindus. They walk on fire regularly as part of important religious festivals.

★ by Eastern Orthodox Christians in parts of Greece, (see Anastenaria), and Bulgaria (see nestinarstvo), during some popular religious feasts.

★ by fakirs and similar persons,

★ !Kung Bushmen of the African Kalahari desert have practised firewalking since their tribal beginnings. (The !Kung use fire in their healing ceremonies.)

★ by Japanese Taoists and Buddhists

★ by tribes throughout Polynesia

★ in management seminars and motivational seminars as in the case of Tolly Burkan, Edwene Gaines, Anthony Robbins and Andy Harrington.

★ as a rite of purification, healing, initiation and transcendence.
Walking on fire has existed for a few thousand of years with records dating back to 1200 B.C.^[1] Cultures across the globe, from Greece to China, used firewalking for rites of healing, initiation, and faith.¹ Recently, in the United States, firewalking is used by businesses to build teamwork and as a so-called alternative health remedy.¹

Explanation

When two bodies of different temperatures meet, the hotter body will cool off, and the cooler body will heat up, until they are separated or until they meet at a temperature in between.^[2] What that temperature is, and how quickly it is reached, depends on the thermodynamic properties of the two bodies. The important properties are temperature, mass, specific heat capacity, and thermal conductivity.
The product of mass and specific heat capacity is called heat capacity and tells how much heat energy the body needs to heat it up by one degree. Since the heat taken in by the cooler body must be the same as the heat given by the hotter one, the end temperature will lie closer to the temperature of the body with the greater heat capacity. The bodies in question here are human feet, which mainly consist of water, and burning coals.
David Willey, professor of physics, explains that there is nothing supernatural about firewalking.^[3] Willey notes that most fire-walks occur on coals that measure about 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit (538 degrees Celsius), but he once recorded someone walking on 1,800-degree (982 °C) coals.¹

Factors that prevent burning

: ''Factors that act together to prevent the foot from burning''

★ Water has a very high heat specific capacity (4.18 kJ/K kg), whereas coals have a very low one. Therefore the foot's temperature will change considerably less than the coal's.

★ Water also has a high thermal conductivity, and on top of that, the blood in the foot will carry away the heat and spread it. So effectively the mass of the cooler body is increased. On the other hand, coal has a poor thermal conductivity, so the hotter body consists only of the parts of the coal which is close to the foot.

★ When the coal cools down, its temperature sinks below the flash point, so it stops burning, and no new heat is generated.

★ The coals are often covered with ash, which is a poor heat conductor.

★ The coals are a very uneven surface, and the actual surface area of foot touching the coals is very small.

★ Firewalkers do not spend very much time on the coals, and they keep moving.

Risks when doing firewalking improperly

:''There are risks when doing firewalking improperly''

★ People have burned their feet when they remained in the fire for too long, enabling the thermal conductivity of the coals to catch up.

★ Foreign objects in the coals may result in burns. Metal is especially dangerous since it has a high thermal conductivity.

★ Coals which have not burned long enough can burn feet more quickly. Coals contain water, which increases their heat capacity as well as their thermal conductivity. The water must be evaporated already when the firewalk starts.

★ Wet feet can cause coals to cling to them, increasing the exposure time.
Therefore, while firewalking is explained with simple physics, there are still hazards. Notably in 2002, 20 managers of the KFC fast food chicken in Australia received treatment for burns caused by firewalking.^[4]

Records

The "world's longest firewalk" record of 220 feet, accomplished by Amanda Dennison in Alberta, Canada on June 15, 2005,^[5] was broken by Scott Bell who walked 328 feet in Wuxi, China on November 28, 2006.^[6]

References

1. World's Watch and Learn: Physics Professor Walks on Fire Corey Binns
2. Can you walk on hot coals in bare feet and not get burned?
3. Firewalking Myth vs Physics David Willey
4. KFC bosses aren't chicken, but they sure are tender Les Kennedy
5. http://www.firewalking.com/guinness.html | Fire Walking World Record. Retrieved on 2007-08-17.
6. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8o_pNN3Ndy0 | World Record Firewalk. Retrieved on 2007-08-25.

See also

★ Fire eating

★ Thimithi

External links

★ The Power of Belief (Video includes explanation of firewalking) from ABC News

★ Firewalking from Skeptic's Dictionary

★ On firewalking from HowStuffWorks

★ Can you walk on hot coals in bare feet and not get burned? from The Straight Dope

★ The Physics and Fantasy of Firewalking - by Robert Novella

★ Medical view of firewalking from Ask Dr. Weil

★ Why Fire Walking Doesn't Burn: Science or Spirituality? from National Geographic