hot & cold

[altekake]

If you add hot water to a face cloth saturated with cold water, why does it first displace the cold water, before it absorbs the hot water?

[kwicky]

On a similar vein you can fool your brain into believing steaming hot water from the tap is bearable. Just run the cold tap at the same time and put one hand under the hot and one under the cold and your brain gets confused.