How does the temperature of
water affect the rate of when
your fingers prune?
By : Kevin Herrera & Herpal Pabla

Introduction
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According to http://kidshealth.org/kid/talk/qa/wrinkly_fingers.html sebum is
found on the outermost layer of skin. Due to sebum, your hands do not soak
in the water, the water just runs off the skin. Sebum basically protects your
hands. Some may believe that your hands become wrinkly because your skin
expands. The expanded skin ends up to become wrinkly.
According to http://healthcorner.walgreens.com we researched that our skin
has a type of waterproof oil which is known as sebum. This indicates that
when you are taking a shower the water rolls off your skin. Pruning only
occurs on your hand and your feet because those are the body parts where hair
is not present which makes your hand wrinkly (Prune).
Our experiment connects to chemistry because pruning has to deal with high
and low skin concentration which determines the rate of when your hands
become wrinkly.
This research is important because people will find out and have an
understanding of when your fingers will prune at a specific temperature of
water. 
Methodology
• Hypothesis: We believe that the hotter the temperature gets, it would make your fingers
prune quicker.
• Procedure: In our experiment we used Herpal’s thumb, we also used a thermometer stick
that measures Fahrenheit, a hot plate to heat up the water, a beaker, and a bucket of
water. For this process we put a thermometer stick in the bucket to determine the
temperature the water is at, which would help us start our experiment. We would use six
different temperatures that goes from the range of 50 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit. After we
have done each temperature we would look at the clock and determine how many minutes
it took for our hands to prune. This help is have the correct data which helped us
determine if our hypothesis was true or not. 
Data Table : Rate at which finger
prunes with temperature
52 Degrees Fahrenheit
6 minutes
63 Degrees Fahrenheit
9 minutes
70 Degrees Fahrenheit
11 minutes
81 Degrees Fahrenheit
14 minutes
92 Degrees Fahrenheit
16 minutes
101 Degrees Fahrenheit
18 minutes
Qualitative Observations
• We observed that the colder the water was the more
wrinkly Herpal’s thumb became.
• As the temperature of the water rose, less wrinkles
appeared on Herpal’s thumb. Although less wrinkles
appeared at the end Herpal’s thumb became pruned
but at a slower rate.
• When we put the beaker of water onto the hot plate,
we observed that the water became foggy for a small
amount of time and then it went back to normal.
Excel Graph
Affect of Temperature on Finger Pruning
Time to prune (mins)
20
y = 0.2444x - 6.3662
R2 = 0.9938
15
Time to prune (mins)
10
Linear (Time to prune
(mins))
5
Linear (Time to prune
(mins))
0
0
50
100
Temp (deg F.)
150
Conclusion & Areas of
improvement
• In conclusion our hypothesis was incorrect because we
predicted that the hotter the water the faster it would leave
wrinkles on Herpal’s thumb. The correct solution is, the
colder the water the faster it left wrinkles on Herpal’s
thumb. As you can see on our previous slide, it shows that
52 degrees Fahrenheit was the coldest temperature which
was the temperature that left prunes quicker on Herpal’s
thumb.
• We feel that this experiment can be improved by trying
more temperatures of water. Another improvement we can
add this is to try different types of water such as salt water.