If our internal body temperature is 98°, how come we prefer weather at about 70?
In: Biology
Your body is constantly generating more heat and needs to constantly be able to get rid of excess heat. It’s much easier to get rid of that excess heat when the air you’re surrounded by is at a lower temperature than if it’s at the same temperature as your body.
Our body *produces* heat by being alive, so we need to constant get rid of this heat or we’ll cook ourselves to death.
We can dump the heat via radiation (being hot in a cold place) or through sweating.
Radiation only helps if the air is quite a bit cooler than we are, 70F would be great.
Sweating can cool us even when it’s super hot, but it’s hampered by humidity. At around 80-80% humidity we can no longer cool ourselves via sweating.
So in a nutshell, a human could survive in theory with the temperature being 120F so long as they had some shade, plenty of gatorade, and the air was dry.
Once the temperature gets to be about 80F and the humidity approaches 100% neither radiation nor sweating is effective any longer and that’s when things get rough.
Google “Wet Bulb Events” for more info but that’s a sincere threat to humanity as part of climate change, we just need a couple of good days at 80F with high humidity and pretty much everyone without central AC is pretty dang muerto.
We need heat to be able to leave our bodies at an acceptable rate. If it’s too warm outside heat doesn’t leave our bodies fast enough because there isn’t a sufficient temperature difference. That’s uncomfortable.
Ask yourself if you would be comfortable in an elevator packed to the brim with nude people – skin to skin contact all around you. That’s what weather at or near your core temp. would feel like.
Your body is stupid and produces more heat than it can get rid of. If you are outside and its higher than 70F, it’s harder for your body to use the air around it to sink the excess heat out of itself.
Hi. I work with fda and thermometers. Human body temperature is declining but we fight for 37’c as it’s optimal for our chemical biology. There is only a 2’c chance degree body temperature between the sweating response and shivering response.
It should be noted that 70F is a comfortable temperature for most people who are wearing 1 or 2 layers of clothing to thermally insulate themselves. A nude person would probably be more comfortable if the temperature were closer to 90F.
Only your core temperature is at 37ºC. Your skin temperature is a lot less, and varies during the day depending on the surrounding climate, how much exercise you have been doing, illness, alcohol intake etc
We find 20ºC comfortable because that is roughly what our skin temperature is most often. If you have been exercising, your body has generated extra heat and wants to get rid of it. You then vasodilate the blood vessels in your skin to bring more of that hot core temperature to the surface to radiate it (and evaporate via sweat) away.
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