if we have same tempature water and air, why does the water feel colder to the air when we go for a swim for example?
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Imagine a volume of some material as a “lattice” of atoms, each one with protons, neutrons and electrons. In water, atoms are more packed together than on air. When these packaged atoms touch your skin, your skin sees more atoms per area than air.
The vibration of your skin atoms (and atoms always vibrate – unless you bring them to absolute zero) touch the lattice of atoms of water and make them vibrate. This vibration makes your surface atoms to lose energy and you start to feel cold. The column of atoms on your skin behind the surface ones, start to transfer energy to the surface ones that are now colder and the process repeats deeper on your skin lattice. It is like your skin is now the whole volume of water and skin and this creates a chain reaction, as your body tries to heat the whole thing. Because the volume is too big for the body to heat to the normal body temperature, that means that your body starts to lose the war and your temperature drops.
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