Fire walking: fact or fiction?

* Layers of ash which form as the coals burn also insulate fire walkers' feet from the heat of the glowing embers, which can reach temperatures of over 540 degrees Celsius (1,000 degrees Fahrenheit) - Oct 29 - Hundreds of Hindu devotees walked across a ceremonial pit of hot coals in the early hours of Monday at the start of the annual Theemithi fire walking festival in Singapore. Here are some facts about the festival and how people can perform the rite without serious bodily harm.

* Heat transfer from hot coal to foot takes place via conduction, scientists say. Vibrating energy molecules from coarse charcoal coals collide with the molecules on the fire walkers feet, transferring energy to them.

* Fire walking is thought possible because coals formed from burnt wood have a relatively low thermal capacity, making the heat transfer slow compared to heat conduction via metals, for example.

* The soles of the fire walker's feet are also only in contact with the coals for a short period of time. Walking briskly is recommended as the best approach, as each step takes half a second or less. Running, the fastest way across, is, however, seen as undignified.

* Layers of ash which form as the coals burn also insulate fire walkers' feet from the heat of the glowing embers, which can reach temperatures of over 540 degrees Celsius (1,000 degrees Fahrenheit). This is why fire walking is normally done at night, so the bed of coals glow an impressively hot-looking red. In daylight, they look more like a grey bed of ashes.

* Hindu fire walkers ceremonially wash their feet in a bath of goat or cow milk after streaking across the firepit to clean off any embers that may have stuck to them. They also put water spiced with orange-coloured tumeric on their feet afterwards as the spice acts as an antiseptic.

* Some dispute scientific explanations of ritual fire walking, saying that some people do indeed get burned, and that ancient and modern fire walkers' abilities to escape the coals unscathed is an inexplicable example of mind over matter.

Source: Reuters