Re: Why do women always seem to feel cold, yet men do not?

Hi Michelle,

I'm sorry for the long delay in answering your question; I just now found it 
in the list of answered questions, and thought I'd take a shot at answering 
it.

I think that women feel cold more often than men because they're smaller.  
Let me explain what I mean.  Any three-dimensional object (a ball, book, 
fish, or person) has a surface area and a volume - you can think of your 
skin as representing your surface area, and your size as a substitute for 
your body volume.  Thus, every object has a characteristic surface area-to-
volume ratio.
	
Without going into the math behind it, let me say that an object's surface 
area and volume do not increase at the same rate as the object gets larger.  
In fact, the surface area increases much more slowly than volume.  Thus a 
large person (say, a man) has a lower surface area-to-volume ratio than a 
small person (a woman). 

Endotherms (animals whose metabolism maintains their body temperature above 
the ambient temperature) constantly lose heat to their environment through 
their skins.  A woman, with a higher area-to-volume ratio than a man, will 
lose heat more quickly than a man, and thus feel colder.

I hope this answers your question!

Allison J. Gong
Mad Scientist