Adam's Awesome Anecdotes

A while back a friend in a thermodynamics class mentioned they were reviewing the phenomenon where if you blow air slowly across your arm it feels warm, but if you blow quickly it feels cool.  I didn’t remember exactly what he said was the cause of this (perhaps due to the fact we were discussing it over beer), but I did remember it interested me.  So, I just looked it up again and figured I would write it up here, so maybe I can remember this time.

The air, as you might expect, is the same temperature no matter the speed.  (Granted the longer it has been out of your body, the more time it has to reach room temperature, but that’s dealing with distance and time, not speed).  It all boils down to the faster air helping moisture evaporate more quickly from your skin, and the transfer of energy from the evaporation makes us feel cooler.

This sounds a bit like something that “Bill Nye the Science Guy” probably covered at some point.  I kind of wish that show was still on the air.  It would definitely warrant a Season Pass on TiVo!