why is it when you get sun burnt you go red,and when you get a sun tan you go brown?

Question

just something that been asked by one of my kids once.and i wasnt too sure as to how to exsplain it.

Answer 1

it all depends on the amount of melanin you have...northern europeans tend to have less than peoples from the southern areas of europe...

Answer 2

A burn is a burn, whatever it's caused by. In this case it's caused by ultraviolet light from the sun burning the skin. The redness is a natural reaction as blood comes to the surface of the skin to bring extra fluid to try and cool the burn down.

A tan is caused by ultraviolet light from the sun stimulating cells in your skin to produce melanin, which is a dark pigment which offers some protection from being burned by the sun. This is why fair-skinned people burn more easily - they don't produce as much melanin.

You'll often end up looking tanned when the burn has cleared up because, before it got to the stage of burning your skin, the sun would have stimulated cells to produce melanin.

The following two pages can tell you a little more about each:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunburn
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_tanning

Answer 3

When you get a sun tan, the sun causes your skin to produce more melanin, which causes the darker color. (Differences in malanin production are also the difference that cause black people to have different skin color than white people, for instance.)

When you get a sun burn, your skin is actually burned, turns red, and is injured in a way similar to if you burned it touching something hot. If you really torched yourself, it will peel into a tan because the sun went deep enough to change the color of the skin under the skin that was burned.

Answer 4

You go red with sun burn as your body is pumping more blood to the skin to help in the repair of the damage, as blood carry the anti bodies and other healing agents.
When you get a sun tan, that is you skin producing a pigment, to protect your body from the suns rays.
That is the basic answer.

Answer 5

Think about it, you skin is much like the skin of a pig, when you start cooking pork the meat turns pink or red then as it's cooked it starts to turn brown the longer you cook it. It also depends on your ethnicity and heritage, the sun does different things to different people.

Answer 6

When skin burns it goes red... thus sun burnt

When you get a sun tan you are not so much burning skin, the suns rays r slowly changing the pigment of it which is why it slowly goes brown

Think of a chicken cook it too quick and its no good. but slowly and its fine

Answer 7

The reaosn ur tan doesnt final is by technique of the fact oil doesnt moisturize previous the 1st layer of lifeless dermis, hence while u bathe its long gone. Youo could desire to apply lotion, and moisturizer, no longer oil. the floor could desire to be moist to make certain that the UV easy to penetrate in any different case dry dermis deflects it inflicting it to burn. Exfoliate earlier hand to do away with the lifeless dermis for a good tan and a extra deeper tan! in simple terms BE moist and MOISTURIZE two times an afternoon so as to maintain and amplify the existence of your tan besides as refill lost nutrition that the solar dehydrates to preevent untimely getting outdated, solar spots, etc etc.

Answer 8

People who burn have less melanin in their skin. Those who go brown do so becasue the sun makes the melanin in their skin come up to the surface to protect it from burning.
Feckles are isolated patches of melanin - i.e. there is insufficient melanin in the skin for it all to go brown

Answer 9

I agree with Ross' answer. Either way, burnt or tan, you have damaged the skin cells. As much as I love having a golden tan, having one points out that I have damaged my skin. Used to be tans were considered healthy, and that's not the case anymore.

Answer 10

Because when your brown your cooked just right, and when your red your not quite done yet!