– Why do small temperature changes feel so drastic indoors compared to outdoors?
In: Physics
Does it?
It’s relatively rare that you can just lie down in the grass in T-shirt and shorts and be neither hot nor cold.
When you are sitting around at your perfect comfort temperature you are in kind of an equilibrium. You are neither freezing, nor are you sweating. This is only possible in a narrow temperature range.
We are used to changing our clothes for outside conditions. Sweating, wearing a jacket, opening and closing it etc.
Also outside you are often physically active, even if it’s just standing around and stomping your feet. Sweat can do a more effective job because there is almost always a light breeze.
I think when we are physically active we tend to stay on the hot and sweaty side of things. Stop on a bicycle ride, sit down on a hike or even worse: stop when you are on a run and you’ll quickly get cold (because you lack exercise to keep you warm) or hot (because you lack the breeze from moving to keep you cool, especially true with bicycling).
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