You will need:
- Blindfold
- Rough piece of carpet
- Plain smooth piece of plastic
- Smooth A4 paper piece
Feel different sensations with the power of touch and understand the importance of this sensory organ in your day-to-day life.
INSTRUCTIONS
- Ask a friend to blindfold you and then place a rough piece of carpet under your right hand and a plain smooth piece of plastic under your left hand.
- Feel the textures with your hand and gently rub the carpet with your right hand and plastic with your left hand.
- After rubbing your hand on both the textures for a while, ask your friend to remove the carpet piece as well as the plastic from under each hand and place smooth A4 paper piece under your hands instead.
- Move both your hands over the piece. Which hand makes the piece feel rougher and which makes it feel smoother?
RESULT
The smooth A4 paper piece will feel a lot smoother to the hand with which you were rubbing the carpet while the same paper piece will feel slightly rough to the hand with which you were rubbing the plastic. Our hands are made up of thousands and thousands of tiny nerve cells which are extremely sensitive to touch. Every vibration that passes through them is sent back in the form of a signal to the brain. As a result when you stroke the carpet, your right hand is sending signals to your brain. With repeated action the carpet feels normal. Hence, when you move from the carpet to the paper, there are no vibrations felt by your hand and the paper feels smooth. Your left hand, however, is not feeling any vibrations by the smooth plastic. However, when you shift that hand to the paper, it feels rougher on account of the small vibrations being sent by the cells to your brain.
