Why does the water in the pool feel so cold at first, but after a while, it’s room temperature or even warm?

Question

I’ve been a competitive swimmer for almost 4 years and I still don’t know why this happens.

In: Other

Answer 1

We don’t have the ability to sense temperature, what we can sense is the rate of heat transfer too or from our skin. Cold is heat transferring from our skin, hot is heat transferring into our skin. When you first jump into a pool of water heat is leaving your sin quickly so it feels quite cold. Once you have been in for a bit the temperature of your skin evens out to the temperature of the water as well as a few physiological changes that slow the rate of heat your body looses to the water so it doesn’t feel as cold.