Quote of the Day
The recent experiment was conducted by Laura Battistel and involved four climate chambers with temperature control set between 23 and 25 degrees Celsius. The study included twenty-six participants, comprising an equal number of 13 men and 13 women. These volunteers were tasked with comparing pairs of chambers by moving between them and then determining which chamber felt warmer and which felt colder.
Each person made 120 comparisons between pairs of rooms, resulting in a total of 3120 comparisons. Analysis of the data revealed an average threshold for perception of temperature differences of 0.92 degrees Celsius. Moreover, all the participants showed very similar temperature sensitivity. “This indicates that this may be an inherent characteristic of our species,” Battistel says. “We are all endowed with a pronounced sensitivity to environmental temperature, although we are not aware of it.”
Eurac Research
February 2, 2024
New Research Reveals That Humans Are Much More Sensitive to Temperatures Than Previously Thought (scitechdaily.com)
This comes as zero surprise to me. Barb and I joke about her temperature comfort range being plus or minus 0.1 F. While that is a joke it is probably about plus or minus 1 F. I’m guessing her detection range is approaching 0.1 F.
Oh, and Barb and I are very aware of our temperature sensing abilities.
A study like this illustrates why Fahrenheit is a much better temperature scale for things approaching room or body temperature than Celsius/Centigrade because it offers a more understandable range, and more easily divided without using a decimal place.
23°C is 73.4°F; 25°C is 77.0°F. A mere 2.0°C delta is 3.6°F delta…which gives you a lot better mental playground to work in.
Remember, there are two kinds of countries in the world: Those that use the metric system, and those that put men on the moon.
(I’m only partially joking.)
Since when does Burma have a space program?
One would think it would be a very refine sense for human beings? Without it we would have died of hypothermia long ago.
In most survival situations, Not reacting to those small temperature changes can lead you to a place where reacting can be to late. Like trying to collect firewood after dark.
Sensing and knowing when one needs clothing or shelter is a big part of our life. Why wouldn’t that sense be very refined?
The world wasn’t always about nice cushy automatically temperature controlled houses.
Oh well, I guess the university had to do something with all that money.
Did they break the sensitivity numbers down by sex (Gender for those who never studied any foreign language)? Perhaps they were trying to get some sort of numerical ratings on the uncanny ability of many women to feel cold at 75 degrees F.