 |
Why am I cold when I'm wet? |
Have you ever stepped out of a pool or out of a bath and found yourself shivering? What did that water do you??
The water is actually stealing your heat! Water does something pretty neat called “evaporation.” When water gets enough energy in the form of heat, it gets very excited! The tiny pieces that make up water start bouncing around, so fast that they take off into the air!
When water is on your body, it takes heat from you so that it can evaporate! Since we lose heat, we get colder. This is also why we sweat! When our body heats up from exercise, we start to sweat. Just like water, the sweat takes heat from our bodies to evaporate, and this cools us down! Pretty cool, huh?
Because we lose heat from being wet, it’s always a good idea to change out of wet clothes into dry ones as soon as possible. If you’re at the beach, you’ll probably warm up on your own quickly because of the hot Sun, but if you’re wet from rain on a chilly night, the cold could make you catch a cold!
Where Does the Evaporated Water Go?
Once heat makes water evaporate off of your skin, it doesn’t just disappear. It becomes water vapor in the air. This invisible gas eventually goes on to make the clouds we see in the sky! The clouds then rain down as water, which can then be evaporated again. This happens to all water: oceans, pools, puddles, and streams. When it heats up, it leaps into the air!
Evaporation Observation!
Don’t believe water is just taking off into the air? There are a few places where you can observe it in action. After it rains, you probably see a lot of puddles on the ground. Where does the water in them go? Chances are there isn’t any hole for the water to drain into. The only place it can go is up!
Have you seen a grown-up make tea with a kettle on the stove? When water boils, it turns into steam, and it’s forced out through the tiny hole in the spout. This makes that loud screeching whistle that lets you know the water is ready and very hot!
You can also put a cup of water outside on a sunny day. Fill it up to the top. Keep checking on it every few hours (or even wait a whole day!) Slowly, but surely, the water level will drop. You may think someone’s been drinking it, but really that water is just evaporating!