Question

When we use a blanket why do we feel warm?
A) Because the blanket is warm
B) Because the blanket does not allow air to enter
C) Because our body is warm
D) None of the above

Answer 1

Hint: The air in the room is cooler than your skin, so the air that is around you is warmed by your body. Also, remember that it’s your skin that loses heat to the cooler air. Therefore, its skin and not the blanket that produces heat to keep us warm.

Complete step by step solution:
Do you ever wonder, why we feel warm when we wrap-up a blanket?
Well, it’s not a blanket which produces heat to keep us warm, it’s our body that produces heat. But, blankets act as barriers between the body and the air.

Our body produces heat continuously in the environment. Cold air in the atmosphere carries that heat away from the body. What blankets do is, they slow down the heat transfer from the body to the air. That’s why your body is allowed to keep warm under a blanket. The colder the surroundings are, the more insulation you need to keep the heat of the body from escaping too fast.
In this way, the blanket doesn’t create any heat but it keeps the heat that the body is creating inside.

Therefore, when we use a blanket, we feel warm because the blanket doesn’t allow the air to enter.

Additional Information:
1. The blanket absorbs the heat that the body is radiating, therefore, it slows down the rate of heat flow from your body to the outside environment.
2. The blanket is partially reflective, meaning that some of the heat emitted from your body either gets reflected back towards you, or the heat is absorbed or re-emitted from the blanket back towards you.

Note: The body's metabolic processes continue to produce more heat. Thus, remember blankets are reflective and partially absorbs heat from the body. They protect the heat of the body from air, which may carry away your heat.