Why does a metal feel cold to touch?

Answer 1

Metals feel cold when you touch them because they are good conductors of heat. They conduct heat away from the skin on your hand and the temperature receptors in your skin register this as a drop in temperature, so the surface of the metal appears to be cool.

Our skin is actually about 87 degrees F. Sitting in a room at 68 degrees F, we feel comfortable because the layers of air surrounding our skin, though heated by our internal body temperature, do not conduct heat as well as metal. Blow the air away from our body, such as in a breeze, and we notice the cooling effect immediately. The metal is just faster.

Answer 2

Temperature gradient between 2 objects causes heat to transfer from the warmer to the colder. Since a metal is a good heat conductor, it draws the "warmth" from your hands quickly, and this is why your hand feels cold when you touch metal. In contrast, touching a wooden stick wouldn't have the same effect.

Answer 3

They are cooler than your sin. You run at a toasty 37 degrees celcius. The metal will be a little bit cooler than that anyway, but that does not account for it being so cold. Metals are really good conductors (due to free electrons, but that dosen't reaaly matter right now). The metal conducts away the heat from your hand making it feel cold, even though it won't be too much cooler than you. Non-metals like plastic and wood are bad conductors so it cant conduct away the hesa that you give it from your hand very quickly.

Answer 4

Most metals conduct heat better than most non-metals. Since normal human body temperature is higher than ambient temperature in most comfortable environments, heat will tend to flow from one's body to anything one touches in such an environment. If the object touched is a better conductor of heat, the transfer will be faster, leading more quickly to a feeling of cold.

Answer 5

This happens because metals are good conductors of heat. They absorb the heat from your skin leaving your skin feeling cold. Metals have a low specific heat (that is why they are easily heated). Your skin heats them easily and the heat is drawn away from the surface of your skin, and then lost to the air from the metal. So the metal may continue to feel cool even though it is being warmed.

The same principle can work in reverse to thaw meat. Frozen meat placed on an aluminum metal surface will absorb heat, and the aluminum will be heated again by the surrounding air, slowly channeling more heat to thaw the meat.

Answer 6

A metal feels cold because it is a conductor. A conductor carries heat/electricity away from the source. A metal feels cold because it is carrying heat away from you.

Answer 7

metals feel cold as they are very thermal conductive, so it will conduct the coolness through the metal, lose heat, thus feeling cold

Answer 8

because metal is a much betterconductor of heatthan wood

Answer 9

metal conducts heat away from the body

Answer 10

Metal is a solid thing