Why do we feel temperure changes more in physical contact with liquids than with gases?

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*[Note: I’m European and have no idea how Fahrenheit degrees work, so all the temperatures mentioned in this post will be Celsius degrees]*

A nice example of this is room temperature water. Like even if the temperature is not that hot and even tho your internal temperature is much higher the water is perceived as warm.

Water at 80 degrees will probably burn you immediately but saunas easily reach those temperatures and nothing happens to you, you just sweat like a draft horse.

Going on the colder side, you can go outside in a t-shirt for a few minutes in the snow without having much discomfort other than shivering a bit, but try to swim in a 2-3 degrees pool and you probably won’t be able to be in it for more than a couple seconds at the first try.

In: Physics

3 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Liquids conduct temperature much better than gases, because their atoms are closer together. Temperature is just atoms bumping around. Higher density, more atoms in a volume, more bumping.

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