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Fall Foliage: Newsletter Challenge (10/07/08)

Posted October 05, 2008 5:01 PM

Welcome to October edition of Monthly Challenge Question from Specs & Techs by GlobalSpec:

You and your wife are out admiring the foliage in the late, cool days of fall in the Northeast U.S. Your wife says it feels cold; you tell her she must be getting sick because you are finding the temperature very comfortable. Who is correct?

And the Answer is..

In general, women have more body fat than men. For instance body fat of a 30-year old woman represents 26 percent of her weight, while in men of similar age body fat accounts for only 21 percent. This means that men have more muscle (fiber) than women. Now, fat is generally inert matter while fibers are always contracting even if you are standing still. These contractions produce heat that is used to warm the body.

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Physicist?
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Re: Fall Foliage: Newsletter Challenge (10/07/08)

11/17/2008 1:17 PM
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TVP45
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Re: Fall Foliage: Newsletter Challenge (10/07/08)

11/19/2008 3:45 PM

I know this is about beat to death, but I'm slow...

The question is terriffic; the answer is incomplete.

Women in general, have more adipose tissue than men and are thus better insulated. This produces a steeper temperature gradient between their core temperature and their skin temperature than you see in men.

See the link below for a number of studies showing this to be the case.

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/asma/asem/2004/00000075/00000005/art00011

Most temperature receptors are in the skin. It is primarily those skin receptors which cause us to "feel cold". See this link for temperature receptor location.

http://books.google.com/books?id=yhRUEiOloJQC&amp;pg=PA239&lpg=PA239&dq=temperature+receptors+location+human&source=web&ots=ycK_sgxiMg&sig=OaefKI8AsXy-aH6AKU9jmBPUrR8&amp;hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=6&ct=result

So, we can draw an analogy to placing a thermocouple on the outside wall of a well insulated house and also on a poorly insulated house. The well insulated house will show a lower temperature and that house will seem cold, based on those thermocouple readings.

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