Summer heat vs. normal body temp

[mm2002]

So, if your normal body temp is 98.6 F, then why does it seem so fucking hot when the temp is 98 outside? Just one of those stupid things I've always wondered about.

[fett]

Internal heat keeps you fresh and you can live to be 56, just like me. The problem with external heat is that it attacks our skin. The most sensitive organ on our body. It' s also insulation. The skin and the sweat glands attack any heat that threatens to raise our natural body temp. It reacts and we sweat. That's to cool us off. But being civilized, we wear clothes. And that just makes our little bods hotter. The answer is, get naked; sweat buckets and drink a lot of fluids. And if that doesn't work, go jump in a lake.

[CrazyTrain]

You are wise beyond your years Mr. Fett!

[mm2002]

Fett....I still don't understand it....but I loved the way you explained it!

[RacerX]

Here ya go, Mark:

"11-Dec-1992
Dear Cecil:

If the average body temperature is 98.6 degrees F, why is it that when the air temperature reaches 85 or 90 we feel uncomfortable? -- Scott Hadley, Santa Barbara, California

Dear Scott:

One of Cecil's competitors once wrote that it was because we wore clothes--as though all you had to do to be comfortable in 98-degree heat was walk around naked. Clearly what we have here is a failure to grasp the scientific essence of the thing, namely, that the air temperature has to be lower than body temperature if you're to cool yourself efficiently.

Your body is a little fuel-burning engine, and like all engines generates waste heat. That heat has to go somewhere, lest you pop a gasket. The easiest place to put it is someplace cooler, such as the air around you. However, if the ambient air temperature is the same as your body temperature, you have to go to great lengths to shove the waste heat out into it, e.g., sweating like a pig or going out to K mart to buy an air conditioner.

What we want, therefore, is an ambient temperature that lets us dump waste heat with the least strain. From experience we know this temperature is 68 to 72 degrees F. If you're very lightly dressed you may prefer 80. But even if you're starkers there's no way you'll be happy when it's 98 in the shade."



http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_059.html

[mm2002]

Excellent info Ron! At least i know I'm not the only one who's ever wondered about that! Thanks bro!

[MBreinin]

I prefer the ambient temperature to be about 50, myself. Fortunately for me, I get about 5 days a year to experience that in New Orleans.

Mike

[horns666]

Why do you feel cold when you get out of the shower..even if it's warm in the house..

huh..

Ron...Fett...Bueller..??

[mm2002]

Why do you feel cold when you get out of the shower..even if it's warm in the house..

huh..

Ron...Fett...Bueller..??

Well Bill, I would say that it's due to the sudden temp drop caused by the water evaporating off your skin. It's just like air conditioning. Works on the same principle. When water evaporates, things get cool.