How we sense temperature

Two blocks...

The setup: Two identically painted black blocks. You felt them both. The unanimous vote was that the block on the right felt warmer.

This is already surprising: Both blocks had been stored on the same shelf in SC 008 for several months. They were both in contact with the same shelf and the same air. This should have been plenty of time for them to both reach the same temperature as the air and shelf. They should have been at the same temperature, yet one block "felt warmer" than the other.

Place ice on both blocks

We placed chunks of ice on both blocks. On which block will the ice melt faster? Towards the end of class,

...there was still ice on the right "warmer" block, but it had long ago melted on the left "colder" block

The left block was made of metal. Metals conduct electricity, and are also very good conductors of heat! Whatever is in contact with a metal block should reach the same temperature as the block rather quickly.

Wood is a rather poor conductor of heat. So an object in contact with wood would take a long time to reach the same temperature as the wood.

This is the same reason why you should not lick a metal pole on a cold day!. On the other hand licking a stick on a cold day is not a problem!

It seems that our bodies are not directly sensing the temperature of an object, but rather something like how fast our hand is gaining (or losing heat) to another object.