Is there a certain temperature that your body can't detect if it's hot or cold?

Question

Is there a temperature (whether it be to the one millionth of a degree) that your body can't sense whether it's hot or cold? Like in water?

Answer 1

our body can't detect it -280 degrees celsius is hot or cold. Can anybody prove that this is wrong? ... so this is true.

Answer 2

Whether or not an object feels hot or cold depends on the temperature of your skin.  If your skin absorbs heat from the object, then it will feel warm because it is warmer than your skin.  If your skin releases heat into the object, then the object will feel cold.  This is true no matter the actual temperature of the object.

Here's an experiment you can try.  Get three glasses.  Fill one with ice water, one with lukewarm water, and one with hot water (but not so hot that it hurts to touch).  Next, place the fingers of one hand into the ice water and the fingers of your other hand in the hot water.  Hold them there for 30-60 seconds.  Once this time has passed, remove your fingers from the glasses and place them both in the glass with lukewarm water.

Does the water feel hot or cold?  The fingers that were in the hot water will feel cold and the fingers that were in the cold water will feel warm.  Odd, no?

Answer 3

I would agree with Vanek, and I would suggest that the temperature would be very similar to the temperature on the surface of your body.  Also, it would depend on what your body is acclimatized to, for example if it were a gaseous substance like the air hitting your body, if it were a temperature similar to that of normal room temperature (about 20 C) then you may not detect any temperature.  Or if you came in from a winter's day in Canada(plug), water at room temperature would feel quite hot.  Water is more likely to feel cold because of it's penetrating effect and that a bodies normal temperature is about 37.3 C.  The range of temperatures that the body would or would not detect would depend on the person's age or skin sensitivity in general.