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
It is room temperature, more or less. But the inside of your mouth is much hotter than room temperature. When we feel temperature, what we’re really feeling is *relative* temperature; if you’re losing heat to something (because it’s colder than you), it will feel cold.
Your skin doesn’t experience room temperature as being quite as cold, because your skin is much cooler than the inside of your mouth, and still air does not transfer heat as well as water does.
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