Why Metal Feels Colder Than Wood

A metal spoon and a wooden spoon sit in the same kitchen all night. In the morning, the metal spoon feels colder. But is its temperature really lower? Usually, it is not.

If both spoons stay away from the sun and heaters long enough, their temperatures will be close to the room's temperature. In a cool room, your hands are warmer than both spoons. When you touch them, heat moves from your skin into them.

Heat moves through metal easily. It quickly moves away from your fingers and into the rest of the spoon. Your skin loses heat quickly, so the metal feels cold.

Heat moves through wood more slowly. The wood under your fingers gets warmer, but the heat stays there longer. Your skin loses heat more slowly.

This also helps explain why a cloth around a piece of ice can keep it from turning into water so quickly. The cloth does not make the ice cold. It slows the heat moving into the ice.

Things in the sun may really be warmer than things out of the sun. Also, heat moves into your hand if something is hotter than your skin. Never touch hot things to test them.

Your hands can feel heat moving, but they cannot always tell you which thing has a lower temperature.