why does metal feel colder than everything else at room temperature but hotter than everything else when under sun?
In: 3
Metal is an excellent conductor of heat. So if it is very hot, it is very good at transferring its heat to you. Conversely, it is very good at accepting heat from you if it is cold.
Sometimes metal does not *hold* it’s heat very well, so that effect is temporary. It does not take long for a cold necklace to warm up to body temperature. That is a different concept. That is heat capacity instead of heat conductance. But that very first touch of a gold necklace will feel very cold.
Even though it seems like it, we actually can’t sense temperature. Instead, we sense changes in temperature. When something is removing heat from your body, it feels cold to you and vice versa.
Metals feel colder than most materials because they are good conductors of heat. Put simply, metals are very good at taking heat from one part on their surface and spreading it around to the rest of the material.
So, when you touch metal, it pulls bunch on heat from your skin and you perceive it as cold. When you touch a poor heat conductors like wood, your body heat very rapidly heats up the area you’re touching and very slowly moves through the material so it doesn’t pull much heat from your skin anymore.
Latest Answers