Puzzle for January 09, 2009

Today's interesting Factoid:
Last year, 147 people were admitted to hospitals in Canada after having touched their tongue to freezing cold metal.

So how do you get a tongue off the pole once they're frozen together?

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The Solution

Not typically a math question in the purest sense, this one is more of a question of understanding and applying "problem solving" techniques. Did the student define the problem and come up with a way to solve it?

Why does the tongue stick to the pole? Because the moisture of the tongue freezes very quickly to the very frozen pole. Answers may vary but the gist of the answer is that the moisture between the pole and tongue needs to be unfrozen, either by warming the pole or using "warm" (ie not chilled) water to "defrost" the tongue and pole. Similar solutions are used to defrost old refrigerators.