• Question: why do we sweat ?

    Asked by coleymurphy to Amy, Drew, Julia, Kimberley, Sara on 17 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Julia Griffen

      Julia Griffen answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      It cools us down… when we sweat the water on our skin evaporates, for water to evaporate it requires some energy, it gets this energy from the heat of our body. As the sweat evaporates our skin cools down. Cooling the blood circulating close to the skin.. (as you know when we get hot we sometimes get rosie cheeked and flushed) that’s because the body pumps blood closer to the skin to cool it down..

    • Photo: Kimberley Bryon

      Kimberley Bryon answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      As Julia said sweat is the body’s way of making sure that we stay at the right temperature. Julia has explained the mechanisms of how this work really well.

    • Photo: Amy MacQueen

      Amy MacQueen answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      Julia’s right – dogs don’t work quite the same way though – they get rid of a lot of heat through their tongue…thats why it hangs out when they are hot.

      Oh and pigs don’t sweat…so the phrase “sweating like a pig” is a bit unfair to pigs because they don’t even do it!! (well technically they lose a little heat this way but not enough which is why they roll around so much in mud!) 🙂

    • Photo: Sara Imari Walker

      Sara Imari Walker answered on 17 Jun 2011:

      Hey cole! All animals have to regulate their body temperature in some way. This prevents over-heating or freezing which can both be detrimental to bodily function. Cold-blooded animals such as fish, reptiles, amphibians, and insects have no internal regulation mechanism and therefore regulate their temperature by using their environment (so turtles for example like to lay in the Sun to get nice and warm). Mammals (warm-blooded animals) can regulate their own heat. Most do it by panting (like Amy’s dog example). Some do it by sweating but only in certain parts of their body. Humans are kind of unique in that we sweat all over (cow and horses do too). So sweating is our way of regulating our temperature. I am not sure how that evolved but its pretty weird. The mechanism for sweat to release heat is exactly as Julia has described – the evaporation of water from our skin cools us down, providing sweet relief from the heat!!

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