EASTHAMPTON — A White Brook Middle School student whose tongue got stuck to a pole on school grounds Wednesday morning escaped injury, Fire Chief David Mottor said.



"They just put warm water on the student's tongue and did a quick evaluation to make sure there [weren't] any injuries," Mottor said, adding that the student was released to his or her mother.



The rescue call came in shortly after 8 a.m.

Mottor said he did not have additional information about the incident, including the student's age or gender.

A web page maintained by the Cornell Center for Materials Research explains why your tongue will stick to a metal pole in freezing temperatures:

Metal has a high "thermal conductivity"; it cools the water on your tongue faster than the blood in your body can replace that heat (this doesn't happen with materials with low thermal conductivity, such as plastic or rubber).

And the phenomenon isn't limited to tongues: if, for example, your hand is sweaty, that'll stick to a metal surface, too.