Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff. I'm Josh and
Speaker 1: there's Chuck and this is short stuff and we're talking
Speaker 1: about firewalking, which is interesting because you can explain how
Speaker 1: it works and I love those I was convinced we
Speaker 1: had done this, but we have not. No, we haven't.
Speaker 1: I just felt I don't know, I thought it fell
Speaker 1: into our circus arts or it does seem like a
Speaker 1: two thousand and ten, two thousand eleven circus stuff you
Speaker 1: should know episode, like a full episode, doesn't it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but it's not a circus arts thing at all. No,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't. I don't think it. I mean
Speaker 1: maybe like a gem Rose circus might do something like this,
Speaker 1: but it is generally sort of a religious thing in
Speaker 1: most cultures, right. Yeah. And they think that, Um, it
Speaker 1: dates back at least thirty two wish hundred years. The
Speaker 1: first mention of it is in an ancient Indian text
Speaker 1: from around that time. Um. And either it's spread out
Speaker 1: of there, there's I've seen some theories that it was
Speaker 1: actually it actually predated, that it was one of the
Speaker 1: things that the Mesopotamians and Neo Babylonians did, and then
Speaker 1: it just kind of spread from there. Um. Or people
Speaker 1: invented it independently, because it has spread all over the
Speaker 1: world over the last couple of thousand years. Yes, these days, India, Greece, China, Spain, Japan, Bulgaria, Thailand, Tibet, Fiji.
Speaker 1: It's all over the place, and it's almost always a
Speaker 1: religious thing, like you're paying tribute to somebody who was passed,
Speaker 1: or uh, you were commemorating your what you see as
Speaker 1: a miracle in your area. Uh, some sort of celebration
Speaker 1: or or parade. There might be a firewalker, but it's
Speaker 1: usually got some sort of religious spiritual connotation. A firewalker
Speaker 1: in a parade would be hilarious because that poor guy
Speaker 1: would just have to keep running to the back of
Speaker 1: the float and walking over it again and then running back.
Speaker 1: That would be That'd be a long parade for that guy. Oh,
Speaker 1: I was thinking more along the lines of there is
Speaker 1: a the entire parade has to walk. There's one portion
Speaker 1: that's on fire. Yeah, all the spectators have to go
Speaker 1: down this way, come over here, and we set on fire.
Speaker 1: Spoiler alert, there's never flames, it's coals, right, And we
Speaker 1: can thank our friends at the University of London Council
Speaker 1: for psychical research back in the nineteen thirties for figuring
Speaker 1: that out. Um. And they did that, Chuck, by conducting
Speaker 1: two different experiments on firewalking, in which they also participated
Speaker 1: to Yeah, these are they're not mean. But what they
Speaker 1: did was in both of these experiments in thirty five
Speaker 1: and thirty seven, they got a couple of British scientists
Speaker 1: and then you know, someone from a native culture like
Speaker 1: an India or someplace, and they basically the whole point
Speaker 1: of the study was like, see white British man did
Speaker 1: it too. It's not religious or special, right, but they
Speaker 1: were skeptical societies, I think is what they were doing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I'm sure they didn't rub it in like that,
Speaker 1: but decree fire pit uh. And then those two separate
Speaker 1: years they basically I think they use oak and they
Speaker 1: the whole point of it was to kind of just
Speaker 1: debunk the like you have to be I don't know
Speaker 1: about possessed. Maybe that's too strong of a word, but
Speaker 1: guided by spirit to do so, guided by voices, that's right.
Speaker 1: So Um. That was yeah, that and that at the
Speaker 1: very least in the West, those two studies put that
Speaker 1: to rest permanently. Um. And they did it so thoroughly
Speaker 1: chuck that. For about I don't know, forty fifty years,
Speaker 1: people in the West, I should say, in the United
Speaker 1: States and Great Britain, UM, didn't think much about this
Speaker 1: whole thing. They just were like, firewalking has been explained whatever.
Speaker 1: And then as our friends in the New age community
Speaker 1: kind of came along in the seventies and eighties, UM,
Speaker 1: they adopted firewalking and apparently had never read the two
Speaker 1: studies by the University of London Council for Psychical Research,
Speaker 1: because they started attributing it to a more metaphysical explanation,
Speaker 1: and that's when interest in debunking it kind of came
Speaker 1: around again. That's right. Uh, And I think this is
Speaker 1: a good time for a cliffhanger because we have danced
Speaker 1: around the fire and not revealed the secret to why.
Speaker 1: It has nothing to do with religion or spirituality. It's
Speaker 1: pure physics and we'll explain it right after this. Welcome
Speaker 1: back to pure physics. Yeah. And since we're talking about
Speaker 1: pure physics, I want to give a shout out to
Speaker 1: Professor David Willie, who's a physics professor. I believe it's
Speaker 1: Willie could be wily w I L. L. E. Y Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it's wildly he um. Oh, I'm thinking of
Speaker 1: Willie Ames from Charles and Charge. Uh. But Professor Wiley
Speaker 1: is a physics of firewalking guy. He has dedicated a
Speaker 1: certain portion of his career to explaining how it works
Speaker 1: and doing firewalking himself. So thanks a lot to Dr
Speaker 1: Willie because basically everything we're talking about is based on
Speaker 1: his research. Dr Wiley, Yeah, that's right, So let's explain
Speaker 1: how this works. There are quite a few components to
Speaker 1: go into a successful firewalk, which is to say, one
Speaker 1: or you don't end up with burns on your feet. Uh.
Speaker 1: The first thing that you've got to start with is
Speaker 1: charcoal that has lit well before you walk over it.
Speaker 1: I sort of spoil it earlier when I said there
Speaker 1: are no flames, but when you see a firewalker, they're
Speaker 1: walking over hot coals, not a real flaming fire. And
Speaker 1: these are embers that they're walking over, So right out
Speaker 1: of the gate, you've got a bit of an advantage.
Speaker 1: And that there's not in direct contact with a flame
Speaker 1: well a huge advantage too, but also the embers themselves,
Speaker 1: so you've got no flame. It's a big one. Just
Speaker 1: put that in your hat. Uh, here's the second one
Speaker 1: for your hat. Those embers themselves are actually really good insulators.
Speaker 1: The type of wood that's typically used for firewalking, and
Speaker 1: you want to use specific kinds of wood. They glow
Speaker 1: really bright, but they actually don't conduct heat very well. Right,
Speaker 1: And I think the top two woods or cherry or
Speaker 1: maple for good looking coals that will get the crowd
Speaker 1: whipped up into a friend's right exactly, but not super
Speaker 1: hot no. Um. And because there's also a layer of
Speaker 1: ash that coats them. Here's the third part for your hat. Right.
Speaker 1: I think the uh, the investigator would say, you neverice.
Speaker 1: You notice they don't do this during the day because
Speaker 1: you would see that ash all over the place. But
Speaker 1: at night that ash sort of goes away to the
Speaker 1: to the eyeball and it makes for a better show.
Speaker 1: But that ash is going to also provide a buffer
Speaker 1: and cut down on that heat transfer. Yeah, yes, exactly.
Speaker 1: And then the last one, and this one's pretty important too.
Speaker 1: There's an actually really limited amount of time that your
Speaker 1: feet is making contact with the hot embers because they
Speaker 1: are hot like these fires that you're walking over. If
Speaker 1: you hold the thermometer, um, it's gonna register something like
Speaker 1: nine thousand degrees fahrenheit four degrees celsius. So it is hot,
Speaker 1: but again it's not conducting that heat very well to
Speaker 1: your eat, and then your feet aren't touching them very
Speaker 1: long to begin with. Yeah, there's a reason it's not
Speaker 1: called fire sitting. Yeah, fire standing around there may be
Speaker 1: a thing. Who knows. Watch someone right in and say,
Speaker 1: oh no, bro, fire sitting is totally a thing. I
Speaker 1: work for the gym row Side show and I fire sitting.
Speaker 1: It's firewalking. You want to walk across it at a
Speaker 1: brisk pace. Uh, they do, say don't run. And by
Speaker 1: the way, we're let's just go ahead and p s
Speaker 1: A here and say or c o a and say
Speaker 1: please don't try this. Thank you for doing that. Kids,
Speaker 1: don't try and firewalk. Just don't do it. But if
Speaker 1: you are a firewalker or you see someone doing it,
Speaker 1: they are walking at a brisk pace. But you don't
Speaker 1: want to run because they make the good point that
Speaker 1: you know, you could actually dig in when you're running
Speaker 1: more than if you're just sort of hot foot in it,
Speaker 1: because it's where the word comes from exactly, and you
Speaker 1: can end up with coals on top of your foot
Speaker 1: or just digging down too deep. So they say you
Speaker 1: walk less than a half a second of contact um
Speaker 1: on a like a tend to fifteen foot firewalk. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so it's only a few seconds. Yeah. So those four
Speaker 1: things together basically the physics of firewalking. But even if
Speaker 1: you you know, if you're if you're not well versed
Speaker 1: in the physics of firewalking, and you hold a firewalking event,
Speaker 1: it can go wrong. And that actually has happened from
Speaker 1: time to time. Most recently from what I can tell,
Speaker 1: was in two thousand twelve, We're twenty one people were
Speaker 1: treated for burns at a Tony Robbins event. Right, he's
Speaker 1: doing this at least in two thousand twelve. Are you
Speaker 1: surprised by that? Have you seen shallow? How well? I
Speaker 1: haven't seen shallow? How you're not missing? But um, I
Speaker 1: don't know. I knew he's a motivational speaker. I did
Speaker 1: not know he did stuff like this, Yes, dude, Yes,
Speaker 1: his his whole jam is stuff I thought he's got
Speaker 1: on the stage and just you know, made people feel good.
Speaker 1: Random stuff like this is no. No, no, he's very
Speaker 1: hands on. He had a TV show once that we
Speaker 1: had to like cover for some reason back in the day.
Speaker 1: Do you remember that? It came in my mind today
Speaker 1: and all I could think of is what did we
Speaker 1: do with Tony Robbins. Did we interview him? We we
Speaker 1: interviewed him. I think you did. I don't think I did. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I don't remember whatever happened with the interview. But
Speaker 1: in the TV show, in the first episode, the pilot
Speaker 1: of this, there was a man who became paralyzed when
Speaker 1: he jumped into his pool after his his wedding UM
Speaker 1: the ceremony. He was so excited he jumped into pool
Speaker 1: and landed head first and became paralyzed. Tony Robbins talks
Speaker 1: this guy into um into skydiving, and if I remember correctly,
Speaker 1: essentially like pushed him out of the plane. Tony Robbins
Speaker 1: very hands on, motivational guy. So anyway, one of his
Speaker 1: uh the people that a saying walked on fire. I
Speaker 1: guess I had to get treated for burns. This made
Speaker 1: me one to try it, and you know why I won't.
Speaker 1: Why is because it's the bottom of my feet, Like
Speaker 1: if something did go wrong, then I'm not walking for
Speaker 1: a little while, or I'm walking in a lot of pain.
Speaker 1: It's not like a pain on my forearm or something.
Speaker 1: You know, is it actually worth it? No? No, no no,
Speaker 1: That's why I said, I'm not going to do this
Speaker 1: because I'm going camping tonight. And I was like, you know, no,
Speaker 1: should I pull out all the stop? You understand the
Speaker 1: physics of firewalking. Who are you trying to impress at
Speaker 1: this point, Emily, No, she won't be there. All my
Speaker 1: dumb friends from years ago, they oh, well, then yes
Speaker 1: you should definitely fireworks. No, I'm never gonna do it, impress, dude,
Speaker 1: you have to stop. Just remember to use some cherry
Speaker 1: or what was the other one. I think you got
Speaker 1: maple up there. No, it's a bunch of hardwoods. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you don't want those. They'll burn off too quick or
Speaker 1: else too too hot. You want to use cherry or maple,
Speaker 1: like you said, And if you don't have it, don't firewalk.
Speaker 1: My old friend Jason Jenkins jump through the fire one
Speaker 1: time and a drunken fit late night and a camping trip.
Speaker 1: Did he melt like Snea? No, he was fine. He
Speaker 1: jumped right through it. But I remember thinking, like, dude,
Speaker 1: if he would have tripped and landed in that fire
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, this this trip has ruined, which
Speaker 1: is another another problem with firewalking. If you do trip,
Speaker 1: you're you're in trouble. Yeah, yeah, so don't don't firewalk.
Speaker 1: I was really just joking when I was encouraging YouTube. No,
Speaker 1: I know. Well, I think that's it for short stuff,
Speaker 1: don't you. It sounds like it's out to me. Stuff
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