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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In relative terms wood insulates better than tile and doesn’t conduct thermal energy well. It has to do with composition, structure, density, and chemical characteristics.
In relative terms wood insulates better than tile and doesn’t conduct thermal energy well. It has to do with composition, structure, density, and chemical characteristics.
Because you don’t sense the temperature of the floor as you dont have any neurons in the flooring, you sense the temperature of your foot. So its not only temperature that matters, but also thermal conductivity. Wood is poor thermal conductor and can’t cool your foot as much as ceramic plate can.
We don’t feel hot or cold. We feel the rate at which we lose or gain heat. Since the ceramic is better at absorbing heat than the wood, it will feel colder to us than the wood because it absorbs our heat faster.
This is also why humid days feel hotter, because we are losing less heat to the environment because our sweat can’t evaporate and carry heat away from our bodies as easily.
Conductivity! You are not feeling how hot or cold the tile is, but how hot or cold your foot is. So walking on a conductive surface takes heat away from your feet faster, making them detect cold. (Note that this is thermal conductivity, which isn’t the same as electrical conductivity.)
We don’t feel hot or cold. We feel the rate at which we lose or gain heat. Since the ceramic is better at absorbing heat than the wood, it will feel colder to us than the wood because it absorbs our heat faster.
This is also why humid days feel hotter, because we are losing less heat to the environment because our sweat can’t evaporate and carry heat away from our bodies as easily.
Both are colder than your body temperature, but wood will cool your feet down slower than tile because wood is a better insulator and tile is a better heat conductor.
If the room was hotter than your body temperature, the effect would be the opposite (tiles would be super hot and wood would be more manageable, which is why saunas are made of wood).
What you’re sensing is not their temperature but their thermal conductivity. It’s the same reason why a plastic bottle and a glass bottle may feel like they have a different temperature when you touch them, even if they have the same.
Because you don’t sense the temperature of the floor as you dont have any neurons in the flooring, you sense the temperature of your foot. So its not only temperature that matters, but also thermal conductivity. Wood is poor thermal conductor and can’t cool your foot as much as ceramic plate can.
Because you don’t sense the temperature of the floor as you dont have any neurons in the flooring, you sense the temperature of your foot. So its not only temperature that matters, but also thermal conductivity. Wood is poor thermal conductor and can’t cool your foot as much as ceramic plate can.
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