Sjoe! Seems like one day it was the middle of winter and then all of a sudden –kapow! It’s summertime. What happened to Spring?
The rest of the country still seems to be having all up and down weather – but Gauteng is just plain hot already.
When it’s hot we get sweaty. If we’ve run around the place or had a workout at the gym or even sometimes just sitting in the sun makes a person dampish. Sweat cools us off when our body temperature rises. It’s very necessary – otherwise we would overheat.
Here’s a little experiment you can do to see how sweat makes us feel cooler… all you need is 1 pair of socks and a fan.
Wet one sock with warm water and then wring it out so that it is damp but not dripping wet.
Put the socks on – with one foot in a wet sock and one foot in a dry sock (yes – really – do it).
Sit for about 5 minutes with the bottoms of your feet facing the blowing fan – do not get your toes caught in the whirling fan blades either please!
Does the foot with the wet sock feel different from the foot with the dry sock?
What happens is this… As the fan blows, the water in the damp sock evaporates. The heat from your foot gives the liquid molecules a little energy and they change from slow moving liquid to fast moving gas molecules. As the water in the sock evaporates into the air, it carries heat energy with it. The heat comes from your foot – so obviously your foot cools down. Sweat works the same way – the heat energy from your body gets transferred to your sweat and then into the air as the water in your sweat evaporates.
See! Sweat really is cool.
Here are some skinny facts…
The thickest skin is on the soles of your feet – 3mm.
The thinnest skin is on your eyelid – only 1mm
We all shed a complete layer of skin every month. The top layer consists of hard, horny dead cells and they flake off all the time. Most of the dust in your house is actually dead skin. Errgh gross! New skin is forming all the time below the old skin – that’s why we never run out of skin. Bodies are clever things hey?
Stay cool everybody!
Sibo