Why does it feel warmer to walk barefoot over wooden floors than to walk over ceramic tiles even if both are side-by-side in the same room?
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#ELI5
Reach into a hot oven, and don’t touch anything. Just hold your hand in there. It’s hot, but you don’t have to yank your hand out, it doesn’t hurt too much. You can leave your hand in that oven for a good 60 seconds. Right??
Now reach into that same hot oven, and touch the baking sheet in there. Ouch! The baking sheet burned your hand! And it burned it right away! Right??
Why?
* The baking sheet transfers heat to your skin FASTER than the air inside the oven does.
* The air inside the oven transfers heat to your skin SLOWER than the baking sheet does.
* But both the air and the baking sheet are the same temperature. So what gives?
**The material matters!**
Metal transfers heat faster than air.
Ooooh, but this works in the opposite way too!
Put your hand into the freezer, but don’t touch anything. Cold, but not “cold cold”. Right?
Now touch an ice cube. It’s a LOT colder, right?
Actually it just ***feels*** a lot colder. Again, the material matters! Here, it’s air versus ice. The difference is that the “heat transfer” is actually going from your skin TO the ice/air, and before we had heat being transferred from the baking sheet TO your skin.
OKAY … back to your question! **Pop quiz time!** And remember, the material matters!
Which transfers heat more quickly to your skin, wood or ceramic?
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