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Asked by 525nepk48 to Ed, Kerrianne, Nina, Oli, yoyehudi on 6 Nov 2017. This question was also asked by Ayrton.
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Oli Wilson answered on 6 Nov 2017:
To stop my brain from exploding I’m going to go for a fairly straightforward answer! ‘Wet’ means covered in or made of a liquid. Water becomes a solid at 0 degrees celsius and a gas at 100 deg C, so at most temperatures we find it it’s a liquid, so wet! I’m sure some of the others could have a go at explaining why liquids feel wet, but I don’t think my brain could handle it!
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Ed Bracey answered on 7 Nov 2017:
Funny I was daydreaming and wondered about why water feels wet, just the other day.
It’s a strange one because we don’t have receptors for wetness in our skin like we do for touch, pain, heat etc.
The answer is we don’t have a full answer yet. Some scientists looked at this about three years ago and found that we use both temperature and touch receptors in the skin to sense wetness.
We might use temperature sensors in our skin because we learn that water often feels cold. This may be because water or sweat evaporating from our skin takes some of the heat with it, making the skin cooler. (BTW, that’s the reason we sweat, to use water to take heat with it as it evaporates, cooling us down).
The study also showed that we are more likely to think things are wet if they’re colder, and also that hairy skin is more likely to feel wetness than non-hairy skin.
My brain’s close to exploding too, so I’m going to knock it on the head for the day!
Comments
525nepk48 commented on :
Haha, thanks.It’s quite challenging to answer,I know but its good to get an answer:)