Are Those Viral ‘Cooling Blankets’ for Real?

Touch the two objects. They are at the same temperature, but wood feel Warm, right? Why then? It is not a question of temperature but thermal energy. When your hand touches an object, there is a thermal conduction interaction. The energy is transferred from your warmer hand to the colder object until both are at the same temperature. However, with the metal block, it takes much more energy to reach the temperature of your hand. It is cooler because it makes your hand lose more energy.

You will notice the same thing when you swim. An air temperature of 75 ° F is pleasant and comfortable, but wading in the water of the same temperature is really cold. Indeed, water has a much higher mass and a specific thermal capacity than air, which makes you lose more thermal energy and feel colder.

All covers are cool

So, how are covers, how do they work? A cover is essentially an insulation. This means that it prevents energy transfer between objects at different temperatures. Wrap in one blanket by a cold day prevents you from losing body heat in the air around you, so you feel warmer. Likewise, if you put a blanket around a cold soda by a hot day, it will slow down the thermal energy transfer from air to soda, keeping soda cold longer.

But what happens if you feel hot and put a blanket? In this case, two things can happen at the same time. It can always act as thermal insulation and slow down the energy transfer between you and the air. Unless the ambient air is greater than 98.5 ° F, it will make you warmer, not cooler.

However, the cover can also have thermal interaction with your body. Suppose you have 80 ° F coverage in contact with a 98 ° F person. This will increase the temperature of the cover while reducing the thermal energy of your body. Yes, it will act as a cooling blanket – at least for a few minutes, until the temperatures are equalized.

So what makes a cool cover more effectively than another? First of all, it should have a high mass, so that it has a lot of energy to warm up. Second, the cover must establish good contact with your skin to increase thermal interaction. Thus, one of these light soft covers will not cool you down as much. Apart from that, it’s just a normal coverage.

But I am an aspiring for trying these things, so I bought a cheap “cooling coverage” online. (I know, someone will say that it does not work unless you get a dear.) For those who say that their cooling coverage was in the sun and they measured a temperature of 75 ° F, I don’t believe you. Check this. I have three blankets on my sofa. One of them is the cooling cover and the others are normal. At the rear is the same photo taken with an infrared camera so that different colors represent different temperatures.