I can be cooking like a pot roast under my covers but if I leave my foot hanging out, it feels like I’ve reached the perfect temperature.
In: Biology
Because your feet are actually a part of your body involved with temperature regulation, acting like a radiator.
For the same reason your hands get warm when its cold outside if you excercise a bit and you need to keep your head warm in order to keep your entire body warm. Your body is basicly a big organic radiator.
Your blood carries heat inside your body so your whole body is generally at the same temperature.
Each part of the body can decide how much heat it’s going to take, acting like individual radiators with individual thermostats. The hands and feet are the most powerful radiators but also those with the most efficient settings, because they have a lot of veins and were probably the most exposed in our evolutionary past
Having your body under the blankets and your foot out allows your body to easily regulate. If you’re too hot the foot will use more heat and send it out, cooling your body, if you’re cold, the foot will use a little less heat and let your body warm up
Because of your heart.
If you were a corpse, your feet hanging out wouldn’t do much. But because you have a functioning heart, you pump a coolant called water (well blood) between your body core and out to your extremities.
It’s the same way a radiator works. A car engine makes heat, it pumps a fluid by it to absorb heat, the hot liquid goes to a radiator and dumps the heat, then goes back to pickup more heat.
Now, your body can try to preserve heat by tightening the blood vessels and cutting off your radiators called feet. Sometimes when you are in a cold environment it cuts off the blood flow, so your feet get cold. However, if you drink alcohol it opens your blood vessels back up and the feet get warm. You’ll feel warm even in the cold if drinking, but you’re dumping out heat like crazy and actually more prone to hypothermia.
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