Why does a hot tub feel so much hotter after swimming in a cold pool and vice versa?

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Why does a hot tub feel so much hotter after swimming in a cold pool and vice versa?

In: Biology

2 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Your body is always trying get rid of heat. Usually we are most comfy at around 70 degrees. It’s cold enough that we can cool off since we are normally at 98 degrees, but not too cold that we cool down to fast. In a cold swimming pool you get used to the water by warming yourself up so that your body doesn’t get too cold, this is harder to do in water because water will cool you down faster than air will (that’s why water of the same temperature as the air will feel colder). So after being in cold water your body is actively trying to stay warm much more than it normally does. That is why when moving from cold water to hot water it instantly feels much warmer because instead of your body trying to cool off faster your body is still trying to heat up. It doesn’t take long to switch between these body conditions, maybe 30 seconds. Obviously there are more things involved and much deeper to go into.

Anonymous 0 Comments

It’s because the thermoreceptors in your skin do not know how hot a thing actually is. They detect a ‘relative change in temperature’.

If your skin is cold from swimming in the pool and you get in the hot tub there is a bigger difference in temperature, so it feels hotter.