My Amazing Body 2-minute video · ages 4-8 · free coloring page
Why does sweat make you feel cool?
When you sweat a lot and then feel cool air, why does the sweaty part of you feel extra cool?
2 min
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Free coloring page
The scene from the video as a coloring page, plus the three-sentence answer, the experiment, and a QR code back to this page. One sheet, US Letter, black and white.
The answer in three parts
Why?
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When you run and play, your body gets hot inside, like a little engine.
Too much heat is not good for you. So your skin turns on its own sprinklers! Millions of tiny holes called sweat glands push out little drops of water. That water is sweat.
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The fastest water bits jump off your skin and fly away.
Sweat is made of teeny tiny water bits, much too small to see. Your warm skin makes them wiggle faster and faster. The fastest ones fly off into the air, and each one carries a little bit of your heat with it. This is called evaporation.
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Whoosh! Cool air blows the crowd away.
When the air is still, the water bits that flew off hang around near your skin, like a big crowd, so your sweat dries slowly. A breeze sweeps them away and brings fresh, dry air. Now lots of water bits can jump off at once, and they take away lots of heat, very fast.
For grown-ups: Being wet does not cool you down - the water flying away does. Dry skin is cooled only a little by the air. Wet skin is cooled by the air and by evaporation too. That is double cooling, and it is why the sweaty part feels extra cool.
How sweat cools you
- Hot insideyou run and play
- Sweatyour skin's sprinklers turn on
- Fly awaywater bits carry heat off
- Cool skinthe heat is gone
A tiny experiment
Try it!
Blow on your hands
You need: a little water
- Wet the back of one hand. Keep the other hand dry.
- Now blow on both of them.
- Which hand feels colder?
What happened? The wet one! The water flying away from the wet hand takes heat with it. That is double cooling.
Did you know?
You feel chilly when you climb out of a swimming pool, even on a hot sunny day. It is the same reason. The water on your skin flies away and takes your heat with it.
Sweat is your body's very own air conditioner. Remember to drink water after you play, so your body can make more.
Your guide in this video
I'm Droppy, a tiny drop of sweat. Let's solve a very cool mystery!
Droppy is a little blue water drop. The tiny round water bits that fly away and cool you down are Droppy's friends.
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