If our bodies are naturally 98.6 degrees why are we hot when it's that temperature outside?

Question

Why is 70 degrees really closer to ideal. You would think we'd like the ambient temperature to be closer to our body temperatures, but not, why?

Answer 1

No, because that core body temperature is maintained at a cooler outside temperature, the 70 degrees that you state. The fat and other things in our bodies keeps the inside warmer. If you were to put a person into a 98.6 degree heat, the body would get even hotter because of it's insulation and it couldn't function like that.

^^This isn't a very scientific answer- but just plain common sense.  

Answer 2

Dear Cecil:

If the average body temperature is 98.6 degrees F, why is it that when the air temperature reaches 85 or 90 we feel uncomfortable? -- Scott Hadley, Santa Barbara, California

Dear Scott:

One of Cecil's competitors once wrote that it was because we wore clothes--as though all you had to do to be comfortable in 98-degree heat was walk around naked. 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.

--CECIL ADAMS

Answer 3

we are use to being in temperatures that are cooler so once it is 98.6 or more our nerves tell us it is hot out. Its like jumping from a pool that is 40F to a pool that is 65F  It feels like a hot tub for a bit.

Answer 4

Because that is the temperature of our bodies inside. That is why we take our temp in our mouth or for babies in the bottom Our skin is cooler unless we have a fever.

Answer 5

i think it is because naturally without any added heat or cold we are 98.6. but if we go outside and it is not the normal room temperature, than it appears hot to us because it is just extra heat. the same thing if you go into a colder room, or outside in winter. it will seem cold to us because the temperature is not normal, but colder than usual.

Answer 6

cuz were already hot, plus the hotness outside!! were even hotter!!!!! everybodyknows that!!  

Answer 7

The human body produces heat, but it's like a machine--it can't overheat, or it will lose function. Therefore, the body must constantly lose heat for it to stay at an equilibrium--this is why at temperatures less than 98.6, it still feels quite hot. Additionally, humidity and the sun is involved--your clothes trap in some heat, and humidity makes you sweat. While you are indoors, your sweat doesn't evaporate--so you're wet and hot.

Answer 8

Basically, our bodies produce too much heat (like a car engine) and has to be cooled down (like the water coolant system in the car). If our bodies cool too quickly, we feel cold, and if they don't cool fast enough, we feel hot. Therefore, since 98.6 degrees Farenheit (or 37, Celsius) is our body temperature, our bodies don't cool quickly enough...

One of the ways our bodies cool themselves is by producing sweat. when it evaporates from our skin, it takes some excess heat with it. If it's very humid, it doesn't evaporate as easily, so that's why high humidity in combination with high heat makes it feel  

Answer 9

i wear its only at 70 degrees at the max, :P i was told it's due to constant digestion in small parts of the intestines but i dunno :{

Answer 10

http://health.yahoo.com/other-other/body...

Suppose you'll have grasped it by now, but the above link should help you as well.