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In: Biology
It’s kind of the opposite. Your skin cools down from being in the cold water. That means after a while there’s a smaller temp difference between your skin and the water, so it doesn’t feel as cold. Turns out your skin doesn’t really sense actual absolute temperature, it senses the *rate* of heat gain or loss.
As proof: Imagine going outside in winter and touching something metal like a railing and something wood like a tree. They’re both the same temp, but the metal feels colder right? That’s because metal conducts heat faster than wood does, so a 0 degree metal bar draws best from your skin faster than 0 degree wood does. So the metal feels colder even though they’re the same temp.
Now apply that to your cold water question. When you 1st get in the cold water, it’s much colder than your skin so it draws heat away quickly. Because your skin senses *rate* of heat transfer, it feels the water as being really cold. Later once your skin has already lost some heat and is closer to the water temp, there’s less temp difference so further heat is lost more slowly – so the water feels less cold. As if it had “warmed up” when it really hasn’t.
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