system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How come a wet towel heats up way faster than a dry towel?

I understand this title may be confusing, so let me explain. I work in a kitchen and every night we close we have to dump the fryer oil into a large metal pan so we can transfer it to the dumpster outside. I learned on my first day that if you use a wet towel, rather than a dry one, your hand burns very quickly when holding onto the handle of the pan. Yet, when we use dry towels we feel almost no heat at all coming through and we can carry the pan with ease. Why is this the case?
gpt
The water absorbs and then transfers heat much better than the air within the towel. It also holds onto that heat much longer. This is why hot water on a towel stays hotter than a towel fresh out of the dryer.