How does the body cool off when the outside temperature is higher than the body’s internal temperature?

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My body is 37°C, the outside is currently 42°C how is that i can stay cooler than the outside? I can understand our body giving off heat when the outside is cooler but not this.

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3 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Sweating can cool you down even if the air temperature is higher than your body temperature, since the evaporation of sweat consumes some of your body heat.

The relevant metric is the so called “Wet Bulb Temperature” which is the temperature that a wet thermometer will measure in wind, and takes evaporative cooling into account.

Wet bulb Temperature depends on both humidity and temperature, wheras as standard “dry bulb” temperature dependends only on, well, temperature.

A wet bulb temp of around 35°C or higher is the point where the conditions are no longer survivable for more than a few hours, regardless of shade or hydration.

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