If I’ve got cold feet and I put them in warm/hot water it hurts but if I put my hands in it or any other part of my body it doesn’t hurt. Why?
In: Biology
My understanding is that you have cold- and warm-sensing nerves. However, at very high temperatures, both can be activated. It’s not entirely known why, but it may enhance the painful feeling in order to make sure you avoid those temperatures, or may be differences in how the nerves transmit the feeling and cold is activated because it triggers a faster reaction. If your feet are cold, and then you add warm water, it mimics that high-temperature pain since both are being activated for separate reasons.
When your feet get **very** cold the nervous terminals in them (the neuroreceptors that make you *feel*) get numb. It is a way the body self protects from further pain from the cold. By putting your cold numb feet inside warm water, you are promoting the flow of blood to them, thus reactivating those neuroreceptors. This sudden reactivation is like a shock to them, that we feel as the discomfort you are talking about.
stupid answer: your feet are cold and used to that cold so when you put it in water that’s warmer than it’s used to then it seems hotter. this is just the way i’ve always thought it, probably wrong
Thermal capacity makes things take and/or store energy. Water is better at taking energy in, whereas air does not
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