I remember a long time ago my mum had told me not to use a wet tea towel when taking food out of the oven because you can burn your hands – lo and behold, it came time to make dinner and I did not head my mother's warning from all them years ago and my hand got burned. Why does a wet tea towel heat up more quickly when removing items from the oven?
Is it because the water molecules are more excited when heated?
Best Answer
Water has a high heat capacity and is also a pretty good conductor of heat.
The dry towel has a lot of air pockets and doesn't have a lot of heat capacity in general.
Essentially you're bridging the air gap that was acting as an insulator. The water also provides a sink for the energy instead of just going into the air. That sink then feeds into your hand. The liquid will also increase the surface area of contact with your hand and the hot object.
Just to clarify a bit on the title question: the term "more hot" may be confusing. The wet towel doesn't have to be a higher temperature than the dry towel (it probably still will be). It just has to transfer the heat into your hand faster (which is still a definition of "more hot" some people just may take that as temperature).