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Warm air is wetter than cold air. If in a house the heat is on all the time the humidity in the house is greater than that of the cooler denser outside air. You walk outside and you open up because there's less moisture and less atmospheric pressure pressing on your sinuses.
Heat causes expansion-cold causes contraction. The warm air tends to expand the tissue lining the nasal cavity thereby reducing the cavity itself. The cold air contracts the tissue thereby increasing ("opening up") the cavity. This tissue expansion/contraction phenomenon is easily observed on the male genatalia or anybody's nipples. By the way...did you know that cold is nothing whereas heat is something? Cold is merely the absence of heat. Kinda like black isn't a color-it's the absence of color.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen...I'm here all week!
What is this.... physics class? lol! In any event, yes, I too tend to step outside on the chillier evenings and notice the difference. Must be why I prefer the cold over the heat! Everything seems more intense in the cold.
78stepside429, you might want to revisit your basic color textbooks. White is the combination of all colors. You can demonstrate this by making a pie chart of all the primary colors and spin it around fast. You will see white. An object-say a shirt-appears blue because it is absorbing all the colors EXCEPT blue. Blue is reflected..therefore we see blue. A black shirt absorbs all the colors and reflects none. It explains why a black interior gets so hot when the sun shines on it...it absorbs the light energy. Just the opposite for white. Hope this helps.
As always, I am just keepin it real.
I see you are or were 2nd Class P.O. Where stationed/when?
Sometimes when I step out of a warm house into the cold outside during the winter, I think I can feel my nose "opening up".
I'm wondering if anyone else have a similar experience. Anyone know what causes it? Thanks
It's most likely from blood being shunted away from the surface of the body down below the subcutaneous fatty tissues in an effort to conserve body heat.
The nares are highly vascular, so blood being shunted away may be felt as opening up.
snowbunny, are you saying you've experience your nose suddenly opening up too when you step outside into the cold?
Yes, I am... When I lived in Alaska I often went outside to watch the Northern Lights and always noticed how much easier it was to breathe ~ I have bad allergies. Everything would be fine until my nose started to run and then I'd 'sniff' ~ bad idea! ~ That makes your nostrils freeze together! But at 70 below, everything freezes! ~ Even whiskey!