Why does swimming pool water feel cold when it is warmer than the air?
Question
It was 20 in the shade yesterday - nice and warm. So why does the swimming pool feel cold at 25 or even higher? Neil (Kent)
Answer
Dave - The thing is that the temperature you feel isn't the temperature of the air or the temperature of the water, it's the temperature of your skin. If your hand is sitting in air, your body is always producing heat quite rapidly, and air is a very bad conductor of heat, so it doesn't take the heat away very fast. So even though the air might be 20 degrees centigrade, your skin might still be still be somewhere at 30 perfectly happily. Water is a much better conductor of heat, very high heat capacity, so if you put your hand in even something at 28 degrees centigrade, the surface skin is going to very rapidly get almost to exactly the same temperature as the water, so that will feel colder even though the water is warmer than the air was.
Comments
Why do I feel colder when in cool air than in "cold"water?
WTW?!? Okay, I must have some seriously screwed up temperature sense.
*Outside thermometer says 50F (weather app says 39F for our area) I feel cool, but not cold or chilled.
*House thermostat shows 68F, in the house I am cold, chilled, sitting at the fireplace hearth to warm up! It feels like dead winter!
*Got a thermometer for the pool finally, had been swimming, comfortably, in 65F water and low 70s air temps!! Possibly 63F, neither of which is "supposed" to be comfortable!
Humidity in each situation seems negligible.
Add a comment