A lot times, we use our finger to judge how hot a device is and whether it has adequate heat sink. The late Bob Pease describes a 5-second rule in his well-known book "Troubleshooting Analog Circuits": "A good rule of thumb is the 5-second rule: If you can hold your finger on a hot device for 5 seconds, the heat sink is about right, and the case temperature is about 85°C."
NASA Johnson Space Center actually conducted a study on human touch temperature, "A New Approach to Defining Human Touch Temperature Standards" by Ungar and Stroud. The onset of pain threshold is about 44°C. The touch temperature is material dependent. For Aluminum, 1 second touch corresponds to about 70°C, and 5-second touch corresponds to about 55°C. Bob was probably talking about plastic case, 5 seconds is about 85°C, then 1 second is about 140°C, 2 seconds is about 110°C.
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