Author Question: What physiological effects might you experience during very humid and very dry conditions? What ... (Read 69 times)

craiczarry · **on:** Jul 13, 2018

What physiological effects might you experience during very humid and very dry conditions?
What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

Would lowering the temperature in your home during the winter cause the relative humidity to increase or decrease? Why?
What will be an ideal response?

Anonymous · **Reply #1 on:** Jul 13, 2018

Answer to Question 1

ANSWER: When the weather is hot and humid, the body is not able to cool itself through evaporation and a number of heat-related problems may occur. For example, in hot weather when human body temperature rises, the hypothalamus gland activates the body's heat-regulating mechanism and more than ten million sweat glands wet the body with as much as two liters of liquid per hour. As this perspiration evaporates, rapid loss of water and salt can result in a chemical imbalance that may lead to heat cramps. Excessive water loss through perspiring coupled with an increasing body temperature may result in heat exhaustionfatigue, headache, nausea, and even fainting. If one's body temperature rises above 41 degrees Celsius (106 degrees Fahrenheit), heat stroke can occur, resulting in complete failure of the circulatory functions. If body temperature continues to rise, death may result.

When the air temperature is high and the relative humidity low, perspiration on the skin evaporates quickly, often making us feel that the air temperature is lower than it really is.

Answer to Question 2

ANSWER: An appropriate answer would be that the relative humidity inside a home normally drops to an extremely low value during the winter. When cold polar air is brought indoors and heated, its relative humidity decreases dramatically. When outside air with a temperature and dew point of 15 degrees Celsius (5 degrees Fahrenheit) is brought indoors and heated to 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit), the relative humidity of the heated air drops to 8 percenta value lower than what you would normally experience in a desert during the hottest time of the day. Lowering the temperature in your home to a value less than 68 degrees Fahrenheit would increase the relative humidity somewhat, but would nonetheless be very low.