Why do people perceive 36.5 degrees celsius as warm? Why do they sweat at that temperature?
Shouldn't it be the subjectively "perfect temperature"?
@gigabecquerel and heat is not equal to temperature, right?
@niplav Temperature is what we measure in celsius or kelvin. Heat is the energy a body contains at that temperature.
water at 50°C contains a lot more heat than air at 50°C, due to the difference in thermal capacity.
The issue is that our body constantly releases energy as heat due to its internal processes, but only works up to a temperature of 40 or so celsius so we always have to get rid of that heat or we'd overheat.
@niplav By being alive you are producing heat, because entropy. Thus you need lower environment temperature to be able to get rid of the excess heat to keep your optimal temperature. The difference impacts how fast you can get rid of heat, which is also why your preferred temperature varies with your activity level.
@niplav Because your body always produces heat, and if there is no temperature differential between you and your surroundings there is no way to get rid of that heat.
That's why we start to sweat, trying to lower our skin temperature by evaporative cooling so we can artificially create a temperature differential