Everyone's heard that if you put a frog in water and slowly turn up
the heat, it will boil to death.  Is this true or is it just a
metaphor?

mrtrivia,

Thanks (I think :) ) for your question.  I am assuming that you are
referring to the statement that if you place a frog in cool water and
gradually turn up the heat, the frog will not attempt to jump out of
the pot and will appear as if it is feeling no pain and will gradually
boil to death.  The story is that being that the frog is cold blooded,
it's body adjusts to it's surrounding environment and it will simply
"allow" itself to boil to death.  It is often used as a metaphor to
say that gradual change is easier to take, or imperceptible, when
compared to a major change, or just throwing the frog into boiling
water.

While I did not perform this experiment on my own to determine it's
validity, I did research and found out that, yes, it is simply an
urban legend that has become a metaphor.

"According to Dr. George R. Zug, curator of reptiles and amphibians,
the National Museum of Natural History, 'Well that's, may I say,
bull****. If a frog had a means of getting out, it certainly would get
out. And I cannot imagine that anything dropped in boiling water would
not be scalded and die from the injuries.'"

"Professor Doug Melton, Harvard University Biology Department, says,
'If you put a frog in boiling water, it won't jump out. It will die.
If you put it in cold water, it will jump before it gets hot -- they
don't sit still for you.'"
Next Time, What Say We Boil a Consultant
FastCompany.com
http://www.fastcompany.com/online/01/frog.html

"Vic's (Dr. Victor Hutchison of the University of Oklahoma) answer was
as follows: 'The legend is entirely incorrect! The `critical thermal
maxima' of many species of frogs have been determined by several
investigators. In this procedure, the water in which a frog is
submerged is heated gradually at about 2 degrees Fahrenheit per
minute. As the temperature of the water is gradually increased, the
frog will eventually become more and more active in attempts to escape
the heated water. If the container size and opening allow the frog to
jump out, it will do so." Naturally, if the frog were not allowed to
escape it would eventually begin to show signs of heat stress,
muscular spasms, heat rigor, and death.'"
THE LEGEND OF THE BOILING FROG IS JUST A LEGEND
University of Georgia
http://www.uga.edu/srel/ecoview11-18-02.htm

Thanks again for an interesting question and I hope the above
information has been helpful.  If you need any additional
clarifiction, please let me know.

Regards,

-THV

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