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?

Question

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?

In: 3184

Answer 1

You’re not actually feeling how hot or cold a thing is when you touch it. You’re feeling the exchange of thermal energy. Touching something warmer than you will feel hot because your body is absorbing the heat. Touching something colder than you will feel cold because heat is leaving your body. How hot or cold these things are depends on how fast the heat exchange is. More conductive materials (metal) will exchange heat faster than insulating materials (wood)

So the ceramic floor “feels” cold because it is absorbing heat from your foot faster than the wood floor.