I would think any temperature under our natural body temp would feel cold. To take it further, I live in the north, so 75 can start feeling hot to me, yet people in the south might consider that chilly. We both have the same body temp so how does that work?
In: Biology
“Feeling temperature” is really “feeling how fast our skin changes temperature, compared to what we are used to”.
Temperature changes faster the bigger the difference between the two.
Further, our bodies are constantly making heat. If it doesn’t have anywhere to go, it builds up and we overheat. It’s why a room at body temperature is ‘too warm’.
And if somebody is used to a low temperature change (because they are used to a small temperature difference, living in a warmer climate) then they will be more affected.
Our bodies make heat all the time because of our metabolism, and have to get rid of it. Your skin and fat are insulators that help keep heat in, too. So temperatures where it is easy to get rid of heat at about the same rate we make heat feel comfortable. Our bodies can adjust how much heat we get rid of by various means. This is why a range of temperatures feels pretty good before we get too hot or too cold, and why when we go from a bit warm to a bit cool it takes a second to adjust but then feels okay.
What you “feel” is a nerve signal, not the actual temp. Your body adjusts to what you are exposed to. Its not worried with what you experience all the time, it wants to know when things change.
98.6 is also your core temp, the tips of your fingers are much cooler. If you touch a 98 degree object, it will feel warm because it is warmer than your fingers.
Your body is very good at adapting to environments to maintain your core temp. It takes it a bit of time, several days to a few weeks, to adjust if that environment changes. Thats why people from different climates experience the same temp differently. Your bodies are on different settings to maintain core temp.
Same as an engine which has an optimal temperature range, you produce heat, LOTS of heat. The exchange is way slower when everything around you is the same temperature as you are. Obviously, if the difference in temperatures is too big with the air being cold you will not make enough heat in time and will get cold.
Your body constantly generates heat, and needs to shed that heat. The temperature we are most confortable at is the temperature we can shed that excess body heat the easiest; in high heat, even below 37ºC, we can’t shed heat and we quickly overheat, so our body tries to warn us by making us feel uncomfortably hot at those temperatures to try to move somewhere else.
As simple as can make it, you feel temperature by “taking” or “giving” it. So it depends on how fast something can take or give it, and how much temp there is. Metal gives/takes it really fast, so you’ll feel whatever temperature it is really easily.
Our skin is okay at taking or giving, but water is even better at taking/giving, that is why your body sweats when it needs to cool off. It puts water on you, so that your skin will give some of its temperature (also why wind helps as the air is moving so your giving heat to it constantly rather than stagnant wind).
Or like a thermos, the outside coating can be kind of whatever, but, the insulation is really slow at taking/giving, so it won’t give or take it from the liquid inside as quickly as lets say if it was made of just metal.
There’s more detailed explanations, but, that is basically the way it was explained to me,
To the second point, your body just gets used it. My friends keep their houses at like 70, but, my house is 80. When I first walk in, it feels chilly, but, after a bit your body regulates itself to the temperature difference. Like jumping in a cold pool on a hot day, cold at first, but, after your body figures connects the dots and starts doing some internal regulating its not cold anymore. (not counting extremes, which you can work towards, but, jumping in 10 degree water will be cold for much longer and needs a lot more regulating and is debatably unhealthy)
Your body is like a house, but instead of insulation and a furnace, you’ve got fat and muscle keeping your body at a constant temperature. When you start feeling cold, that’s your furnace kicking on letting you know it’s trying to heat up your body.
Genetics and where you were raised both play a part as to why you would react to temperatures differently than other people. If you’re in 90° temperature all year round, then that’s normal to you and anything less would feel cold.
First thing: 37 is internal temperature. Your skin is at 29-30 and you actually could feel cold below that, but:
Second thing is that we produce heat and need to dissipate it, so actually we feel hotness in temperatures over 30, but feel comfortable when surroundings are bit lower than actual temperature of our skin, and
Third: thin layer of air around us is actually warmer, that let’s us feel the same temperature as colder when we stand in stream of wind, also it let’s us get out from sauna into temperatures below zero and do not feel it for a while, that also makes water at swimming pool cold at 22 degrees while you feel comfortable in that temperature of air.
This also makes your ice cream melt faster if you try to eat it riding on your bike.
The answer is because you are generating a lot of heat and you are also well insulted. It also depends on what your body has contact with. Having a breeze moves a constant flow of new air molecules around you so that you don’t have the ability to warm them up and slow heat transfer. Water conducts heat very well so being at 75° water could eventually give you hypothermia while being in 75° air is extremely comfortable indefinitely.
Because our bodies constantly generate heat and thus needs to also rid itself of heat.
We feel neither cold nor hot when there’s an approximate balance between the amount of heat lost and the amount generated. The body can adjust this, by restricting or increasing surface blood flow, by incressing or decreasing metabolic rates and by sweating.
To get rid of excess heat, 37C is a bit much, even if it is dry. Your body has to sweat a decent amount to maintain its temperature. Eventually the body finds a balance and you feel neither hot or cold.
If you then quickly move to say, 25C, your body will be off balance and lose heat faster than previously, and you will feel cold.
Or if you were in 19C and got used to it, and moved to 25C, you would most likely feel hot until the body again compensates by increasing surface blood circulation and sweating.
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