If I’m outside and I start to sweat very much then the sun on my sweat heats it up and I feel hotter than before so I wipe it off and feel cooler for awhile- doesn’t water, or sweat, act sort of like a “magnifying glass” that heats up the surface of the skin in the same way that if you wash your car in direct sunlight then it burns off/evaporates which leaves water marks on the car?
In: Biology
Evaporation is an Endothermic process which means that a liquid needs to absorb energy from its surroundings to evaporate. When the sweat evaporates from your skin it pulls energy (heat) from your skin and evaporates. When you have heat pulled from you, it feels cooler to you so you get “cooled off”.
When you wipe the sweat off of your forehead you are thinning out the layer of sweat, allowing the sweat to evaporate quicker (as evaporation is largely based on surface area, and a thinner layer of sweat has more surface area) this quicker evaporation allows for a much cooler sensation and cooler overall body heat quicker.
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