I used to always get confused as a kid when going swimming and the temperature gauge was around 20 degrees celsius but felt really cold considering the same temperature in air was warm. I still don’t really understand why this is?
In: Earth Science
Temperature is to do with how much particles within a material are moving. Heat is a different thing. Heat is about how that energy flows. Veritasium has a few [videos](https://youtu.be/hNGJ0WHXMyE) about it. If you sit a book and a metal bar out in the sun, they’ll eventually reach the same temperature. But if you pick up the bar, it’ll feel hot. However, the book will (at most) feel warm. This is because metal is *really* good at transferring heat, but paper isn’t. So, the particles in the book and in the metal are vibrating equally quickly, but the particles in the metal are better at passing those vibrations on to your hand.
It’s the same with water vs air. In this case, you are warmer than them. But water is a lot better at sucking the heat out of you than air, which makes the water feel colder.
A wet suit works by holding on to water. Your body then heats up the water in the suit, and then this water doesn’t keep sucking heat from you. Without the suit, the water around you keeps changing for more, cool water so you keep losing heat. A blanket works in much the same way. You heat up the air under the blanket, and the blanket stops that air from being replaced by new, cool air.
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