Water Temperture

[na9la]

ok my sister and i dont have a betta we are doing tests like room temperture with water and a funny thing yesterday was my sisters themetor was a kind that goes in the water and it said 80F and we put our finger in and the water felt so cold

I tried my themetor and it said 77F (i live in canada and uce C but for fish i got use to F)

i asked my dad if that was normal (as a kid was a fishowner of guppies)

he said yes you are feeling the room temperture
so is this normal
is 80F really feels cold to a human touch??

 

[RandomWiktor]

Anything colder than your body temperature will feel cold to the touch, and anything warmer will feel hot. This is why you can often tell if a person has a fever by touching their face. 80 degrees is a full 18.6 degrees cooler than the human body, so it would definately feel cold to the touch - especially when you take your hand out of the water and it starts evaporating!

 

[Squid]

If your question is why does 70% in the water feel cooler than 70% in the air, I saw this on yahoo answers

you lose heat to cold water faster than you do to cold air.

Why? Water is more dense, so more of it is in contact with your body at any given time.

This is why most engines are water cooled rather than air cooled.

Hot water will heat you up faster than hot air, for the same reason

If this is wrong, we should wait for the more chemically minded like andywg to respond.

Squid

 

[na9la]

thx guys so much for the replies

now i learned betta like to swim in water colder for human touch

thx so much!!

 

[RandomWiktor]

That's right, Squid. Water is known for its amazing powers to absorb heat, and because heat tends to flow from warmer areas to cooler ones, your hand will feel cold in water because heat is being absorbed from your body and in to the water. And the density bit is spot-on; air molecules are so far seperated that they are not very effective in cooling, and thus do not draw heat from your body as readily as water. Water, being very dense and capable of tightly surrounding anything placed in it, has fairly compact molecules (though not so much as a solid of course), which means the molecules are in constant contact with your skin, absorbing heat.

 

[na9la]

wow lots of big words
lol kidding i understand what you are saying

 

[Kyrielle]

That's right, Squid. Water is known for its amazing powers to absorb heat, and because heat tends to flow from warmer areas to cooler ones, your hand will feel cold in water because heat is being absorbed from your body and in to the water. And the density bit is spot-on; air molecules are so far seperated that they are not very effective in cooling, and thus do not draw heat from your body as readily as water. Water, being very dense and capable of tightly surrounding anything placed in it, has fairly compact molecules (though not so much as a solid of course), which means the molecules are in constant contact with your skin, absorbing heat.

That and it takes a LOT of energy to heat water up. So, water can absorb so much heat merely because it takes much more energy than most substances...and so it will stay cooler longer.