All mysteries
Mystery #4Tier 1chocolate / melting / temperature

Why does chocolate go gooey in your warm hand while a pebble stays solid?

Hold a chocolate button in your hand for a minute and it slumps into a sticky mess. Hold a pebble the same way and it does not change one bit. Your hand is clearly warm enough to melt one thing but useless against the other. Why does chocolate go gooey in your palm while a rock stays stubbornly solid?

A single square of dark chocolate, its edges just beginning to soften and lose their sharpness.
Photo: Philipp Michel Reichold · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

Your guess

What is your hunch about why one melts in your hand while the other stays solid?

There's no single magic word to type, have a go in your own words, then reveal the answer to see how close you got.

Make a guess to unlock the hints and the answer.