Why are certain materials colder than others? (i.e. metal compared to wood)
In: Physics
You don’t feel “heat” or “cold” in absolute terms. What you feel is the transfer of energy to or from your body. The faster energy leaves your body, the colder it feels. The faster energy enters your body, the hotter it feels.
Metal transfers heat more readily than wood (both in and out). So a cold metal will pull more heat from your body, and thus feel colder, than wood at the same temperature. Likewise, hot metal will push heat into your body more than wood of the same temperature and feel hotter, as anyone who’s played on a playground on a hot day can tell you.
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