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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Can you say the word, “Conduction?” Good! *Conduction* is when you touch something like the tile floor, and it’s cold, it means your body is giving your warm away to the floor. Different materials like tile or wood floor *conduct* or take the heat from your body differently because they’re made out of different stuff. Wood feels warmer because it is less dense than tile, so the tile feels colder to your feet. That’s what *Conduction* is, can you say “Conduction,” again? Good!
Materials of higher density transport warmth away quicker. So the tiles cool your feet down much faster than wood, which is actually a good warmth isolator.
Your skin doesn’t feel temperature it feels a heat flux, a transfer of heat.
The thermal conductivity is different for different materials, a higher conductivity will lead to a larger/faster rate of heat transfer and that feels colder, even if the objects start at the same temperature.
That is why aislants like plastics and foam feel warmer than steel even if both happened to be at the same temperature.
Your skin doesn’t feel temperature it feels a heat flux, a transfer of heat.
The thermal conductivity is different for different materials, a higher conductivity will lead to a larger/faster rate of heat transfer and that feels colder, even if the objects start at the same temperature.
That is why aislants like plastics and foam feel warmer than steel even if both happened to be at the same temperature.
[Veritasium](https://youtu.be/vqDbMEdLiCs) does a great job of explaining.
Basically the temperature might be the same, but they feel different due to thermal conductivity.
Objects that are at a lower temperature to your body temp, and that conduct heat better will feel colder than the other object that is the same temp but not able to conduct the heat away from your body as quickly.
Can you say the word, “Conduction?” Good! *Conduction* is when you touch something like the tile floor, and it’s cold, it means your body is giving your warm away to the floor. Different materials like tile or wood floor *conduct* or take the heat from your body differently because they’re made out of different stuff. Wood feels warmer because it is less dense than tile, so the tile feels colder to your feet. That’s what *Conduction* is, can you say “Conduction,” again? Good!
[Veritasium](https://youtu.be/vqDbMEdLiCs) does a great job of explaining.
Basically the temperature might be the same, but they feel different due to thermal conductivity.
Objects that are at a lower temperature to your body temp, and that conduct heat better will feel colder than the other object that is the same temp but not able to conduct the heat away from your body as quickly.
So we cannot actually feel the temperature of something. The only thing we can feel is how cold or hot it makes our skin. This is affected by two things-the actual temperature of the object and its thermal conductivity (how fast it can move heat energy).
Wood is a decent insulator and tile is a better conductor of heat. That is why they feel different
Your skin doesn’t feel temperature it feels a heat flux, a transfer of heat.
The thermal conductivity is different for different materials, a higher conductivity will lead to a larger/faster rate of heat transfer and that feels colder, even if the objects start at the same temperature.
That is why aislants like plastics and foam feel warmer than steel even if both happened to be at the same temperature.
The relevant physical properties are called “[specific heat](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specific_heat_capacity)” and “[thermal conductivity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_conductivity)”.
The former is a measure of how much energy is transferred when a substance changes temperature *and vice versa) and the latter is the rate at which heat travels though and in/out of a substance.
Think about your oven: When you put your arm inside to grab a dish, everything in there is the same temperature, but you don’t get burned by 400F air, only if you touch 400F metal, glass, meat, oil, etc. That is because air transmits heat much more slowly than a metal, so not as much can be put into your skin, plus air cools down much more rapidly as it loses heat than metal does, so the air next to your arm that was 400F might drop 200F in a second or two from just the small amount of energy transferred to your skin while touch the hot dish might transfer much more energy but only drop the temperature of that dish 10 or 20 degrees.
This is also the same reason chicken takes 30 minutes to cook in a 400 degree oven, but only 5 minutes to cook in 400 degree frying oil. Oil can transfer heat into the meat MUCH faster than air can.
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