Swedish sayings
'Inget d?ligt väder, bara d?ligt kläder,' means 'there's nosuch thing as bad weather, but there is such a thing as bad
clothing.'
'En Svensk tiger' This is a motto from WWII with a double meaning. The first
is that a Swede keeps his or her mouth shut, and the
second is literally 'a Swedish tiger.'
'Mycket snak och lite verkstad' means roughly 'all hat and
no cattle' and literally, 'lots of talk and little workshop'
...and finally, 'up som solen, ner som en pankaka' 'Up like
the sun, down like a pancake.' Kids can be like that (and
politicians). Off to a good start, and then flop.
posted by Matt_J @ 10:37 AM
2 Comments:
That's the truth of it, isn't it? I need an explanation. I've been working on one, along the lines of 'high relative humidity near freezing is better at conducting heat away from your skin than dry air that is much colder' but I can't convince myself why that would be so. But it makes me think of a similar problem given me by a Finn-- why is there a wave of heat in the sauna when you throw water on the rocks?
I think I understand it now. The thermal conductivities of dry and humid air must be about the same. So how can wet air at the freezing point feel colder than dry air that is much colder (and it definitely does!)? Water has some unique physical properties and the place where the energy goes must to vaporize liquid water. Liquid water droplets-- fog-- hit your skin and then evaporate, and it takes a lot more energy to turn the liquid water to gas than to turn cold air into dry air. Now, to the sauna: The reason you feel a wave of heat is exactly the opposite. Your body is cooler than the air in the sauna, and when you throw water on the rocks the steam condenses on you, releasing the heat of condensation directly to your skin.
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