"Normal" body temperature is 98.6 degrees F - so why do we feel hot outdoors when temp is in the 80's & 90's?

Question

IF the ambient temperature is lower than our body temperature - why should we experience the sensation of being hot?

Answer 1

Smoe people wrote that it was because we wore clothes or stood in the sun--as though all you had to do to be comfortable in 98-degree heat was walk around naked or sit in the shade.

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.

Answer 2

Our CORE temp of 98.6 is on avg. Some people run cooler some hotter. The body can only adjust this temp by 1 -3 degrees during normal activity.

Our body cannot adjust this temp instantly so leaving a cool environment into a warm one our body is continuing to increase the core temp and it takes about 15-30 minutes before the body can adjust to the new temp (by that time we are already uncomfortable). Our skin plays a role in this as well because it is super sensitive to temp changes and the brain attempts to compensate for the temp change but the body can't move fast enough to keep up with the drastic change.

If you slowly increased the temp around you (such as the time it takes for the AC to turn back on) your body is constantly adjusting but the temp change is slow enough so we don't feel uncomfortable during this AC cycle.

Answer 3

98.6 is just the average for most people. couple of degrees higher or lower is ok if you always have that temperature. I would still try measuring your temperature from another spot on your body. Your mouth isn't the most accurate. If you are really worried a doctor could check you with a rectal thermometer. Good luck

Answer 4

We are always generating heat, and our equilibrium of 98.6 assumes a lower "cold sink" outside the body, perhaps from 60 to 75 degrees, which is more natural. That is, we feel "comfortable" at about 70 degrees outside because this allows our body temperature to be at its natural equilibrium. If the outside temperature goes way below this, then we lose heat faster than we can generate it. If the outside temperature goes way above this 70 degree or so, then we don't lose heat as fast as our body "wants", and so our body heats up a little above 98.6, and we feel hot. (Even if our body only gets to 99.6, we feel very hot indeed.)

Answer 5

98.6 degrees is our CORE temperature. It feels hot to us when it reaches the 80's and 90's because of the sensitivity of our epidermal layer, which is getting heated faster than it can cool us at those temperatures.

And besides, it's just HOT.

Answer 6

Your body is 98.6 on the inside, not on the surface. Your surface temperature is lower than 98.6.

Try this....

Pick up a chunk of insulating material (expanded polystyrene will do). Hold it tight in your hand. You will feel your hand heating up because you can no longer get rid of waste heat from your hand and it's surface temperature is rising towards 98.6.

Now get a nice pair of winter gloves, put one on and insert a thermometer. Your hand will feel hot and you will see the temperature rising towards 98.6.

Your body is only telling you about it's ability to get rid of waste heat, not the air temperature compared to you core temperature.

Answer 7

Good question. If you actually sit in the shade when its 98 degrees out and don't move, you should be fine, and actually quite comfortable, but when the temp is in the mid 80's you generally spend more time in the sun, and move around alot, burning calories and making the body do more work, so that makes your body feel warmer, thus causing you to sweat and try to cool down.

Answer 8

Because 98.6 is an internal temperature. Our skin senses outer temperatures differently & there are various cooling mechanisms that work on the skin to make it feel like less than 98.6.

Answer 9

When the air outside is closer to our body temperature, it is harder for our bodies to lose heat. We still radiate heat out to our surroundings, but a lot more slowly. If you start exercising, you will start generating heat that you can't get rid of easily, so you start feeling uncomfortably warm.

It's the same reason it feels so hot when the air is humid. Cooling down by sweating doesn't work very well because the sweat doesn't evaporate.

Answer 10

Because the heat that our bodies generates doesn't flow into the surounding air as rapidly. Also, if it's humid, we don't lose heat through perspiration as rapidly and so we feel hotter. Most people are most comfortable around 74 to 76 F with about 20% to 25% relative humidity.


Doug