QED: If I make myself a nice hot cup of coffee, inevitably get called to something ‘more important’ and I’m away for an extended period of time, my cup of coffee is no longer hot. I would expect that, as part of the universes ongoing quest for equilibrium, my coffee would be room temperature, but actually it always _feels_ somewhat colder.
Is this a trick of the mind or is it actually colder somehow?
In: Physics
Part of your sense of how hot or cold something is, is how fast heat transfers from you to the object, or vice versa.
If you go outside on a winter’s day, and you see a piece of sheet metal and a tree branch lying next to one another, you know they’re both pretty much ambient temperature. But you also know the metal is going to feel way colder. Why? Because the metal is much more efficient at conducting heat away from your hand.
Similarly, if your oven has been sitting at 400 degrees for a while, both the air and the metal grating inside are around 400 degrees, but the metal is going to be much less pleasant to touch, as it conducts the heat much more efficiently into your skin.
Latest Answers