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I don't believe you lose massive amounts of body heat through your head


Randomguy

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Yes, I think this is true, too.  If anything, I would think hands and feet would bleed heat much more effectively than head appendages.

 

Maybe some engineers can explain this?

 

Not an engineer, so take this with a grain of salt.

 

Whilst unpleasant, you can live without your hands and feet but not without your brain.  The body is very good at self preservation and ensures the brain is protected at all costs, including ensuring it is warm enough.

 

I also suspect part of it is humans are generally upright and heat rises.

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ok, kids, let's look at this problem realistically... heat RISES :P

 

so if you are standing up, where's the heat going to go?

 

hey, let's look at this problem from an evolutionary standpoint...where do you grow hair?

you grow hair where you lose alot of heat. Your armpits, your groin, and your HEAD

 

you don't lose heat equally all over. You lose more heat where your blood vessels are close to your skin. the outside of your arms and the front of your legs are made to help you retain heat.  your head dissapates heat. That's why your mom made you wear a hat in the winter

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This misconception came about when the US Air Force was studying the effects of a pilot having to eject into freezing cold water. They found that someone could stay alive longer, but not much longer, if their head was covered. That somehow morphed into 'the head loses the most heat' myth. It isn't that the head loses the most heat. Rather it's you'll stay alive longer if your brain doesn't start to malfunction due to extreme cold.

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ok, kids, let's look at this problem realistically... heat RISES :P

 

so if you are standing up, where's the heat going to go?

 

hey, let's look at this problem from an evolutionary standpoint...where do you grow hair?

you grow hair where you lose alot of heat. Your armpits, your groin, and your HEAD

 

you don't lose heat equally all over. You lose more heat where your blood vessels are close to your skin. the outside of your arms and the front of your legs are made to help you retain heat.  your head dissapates heat. That's why your mom made you wear a hat in the winter

 

Ok, heat rises, but blood circulates.  If cooling of the body takes place where you have greater surface area/mass ratios, certainly you would look at the hands and penis as places where you lose heat, depending on your penis dimensions and state of arousal in cold climates.  My penis is not covered by hair, btw.

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ok, kids, let's look at this problem realistically... heat RISES :P

 

so if you are standing up, where's the heat going to go?

 

hey, let's look at this problem from an evolutionary standpoint...where do you grow hair?

you grow hair where you lose alot of heat. Your armpits, your groin, and your HEAD

 

you don't lose heat equally all over. You lose more heat where your blood vessels are close to your skin. the outside of your arms and the front of your legs are made to help you retain heat.  your head dissapates heat. That's why your mom made you wear a hat in the winter

 

So why do chicks have pubic hair?  I really wish they didn't.

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 If cooling of the body takes place where you have greater surface area/mass ratios

 

 

cooling takes place where the blood can get to the skin surface in the greatest quantity.

 

That's why your wrists can vent alot of heat. Ever notice that if you are wearing a jacket this time of year and are a ltitle warm, you can pull up your sleeves and all of a sudden you are fine? Well, then try it sometime!

 

anyway, you vent heat by getting your blood close to the skin surface

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Scientists debunk the myth that you lose most heat through your head
 
 

When it comes to wrapping up on a cold winter's day, a cosy hat is obligatory. After all, most of our body heat is lost through our heads – or so we are led to believe.

Closer inspection of heat loss in the hatless, however, reveals the claim to be nonsense, say scientists who have dispelled this and five other modern myths.

They traced the origins of the hat-wearing advice back to a US army survival manual from 1970 which strongly recommended covering the head when it is cold, since "40 to 45 percent of body heat" is lost from the head.

Rachel Vreeman and Aaron Carroll, at the centre for health policy at Indiana University in Indianapolis, rubbish the claim in the British Medical Journal this week. If this were true, they say, humans would be just as cold if they went without a hat as if they went without trousers. "Patently, this is just not the case," they write.

The myth is thought to have arisen through a flawed interpretation of a vaguely scientific experiment by the US military in the 1950s. In those studies, volunteers were dressed in Arctic survival suits and exposed to bitterly cold conditions. Because it was the only part of their bodies left uncovered, most of their heat was lost through their heads.

The face, head and chest are more sensitive to changes in temperature than the rest of the body, making it feel as if covering them up does more to prevent heat loss. In fact, covering one part of the body has as much effect as covering any other. If the experiment had been performed with people wearing only swimming trunks, they would have lost no more than 10% of their body heat through their heads, the scientists add.

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Do We Really Lose Half our Body Heat From our Heads?

 

 

http://www.livescience.com/34411-body-heat-loss-head.html

 

In 2006, scientists revisited the question. They tested subjects in coldicon1.pngwater with and without wetsuits, sometimes with their heads out of water and sometimes with their heads submerged. They found that the head accountslb_icon1.png for about 7 percent of the body’s surface area, and the heat loss is fairly proportional to the amount of skin that’s showing.

At most, according to a 2008 report in BMJ, a person loses 7 percent to 10 percent of their body heat through their head.

What about when you want to cool off? It’s true that certain parts of the body — the ears, nose, cheeks, hands and feet — have special blood vessels that control cooling and warming. Special machines helpicon1.pngoverheated athletes cool their core temperature and recover from heavy exerciseicon1.png by dunking their hands in icy water. (Of course, dunking your head in icy water will probably cool you down, too.)

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I think it was to protect our sensitive areas when we walked through the bush naked

 

What?  You would need some amish-style beards to do that if you were leading through the bush with your crotch.  However, if this was the case, wouldn't dude's pubic hair coverage need to be much, much larger to protect the penis appendage?

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What?  You would need some amish-style beards to do that if you were leading through the bush with your crotch.  However, if this was the case, why are dude's pubic hair coverage much, much larger to protect the penis appendage?

 

Friction protection for walking and running.  Same reason we have pit hair.  I think the chest hair has to do with staying warm.  

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this is stupid. the Internet doesn't know anything. If idiots like me can post a web page, then why believe what's on the web when you already know the answer?

 

Are you too warm?  ...take your hat off

 

is it too hot in summer? ...get a buzz cut

 

are you cold? ...put a hat on

 

you need some joker to post something with graphics and a video animation before you believe your own experience? what kind of numbskulls are you?

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this is stupid. the Internet doesn't know anything. If idiots like me can post a web page, then why believe what's on the web when you already know the answer?

 

Are you too warm?  ...take your hat off

 

is it too hot in summer? ...get a buzz cut

 

are you cold? ...put a hat on

 

you need some joker to post something with graphics and a video animation before you believe your own experience? what kind of numbskulls are you?

I sir, will have you know that I am a Texican numbskull.  Also, if our skulls are numb, can they lose heat?

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this is stupid. the Internet doesn't know anything. If idiots like me can post a web page, then why believe what's on the web when you already know the answer?

 

Are you too warm?  ...take your hat off

 

is it too hot in summer? ...get a buzz cut

 

are you cold? ...put a hat on

 

you need some joker to post something with graphics and a video animation before you believe your own experience? what kind of numbskulls are you?

 

Your skull would be numb if you were really cold, I suppose.

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you guys all have minds like a steel trap....CLOSED!

 

mine is wide open

 

you got to think about this stuff now....you never took off a hat when you were getting hot?

 

you boys need to open your mind like mine

 

its like a wind tunnel over here

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you guys all have minds like a steel trap....CLOSED!

 

mine is wide open

 

you got to think about this stuff now....you never took off a hat when you were getting hot?

 

you boys need to open your mind like mine

 

its like a wind tunnel over here

So you are blowing us?

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you guys all have minds like a steel trap....CLOSED!

 

mine is wide open

 

you got to think about this stuff now....you never took off a hat when you were getting hot?

 

you boys need to open your mind like mine

 

its like a wind tunnel over here

 

I always just took my pants off if I got hot.

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