A person may not know what a cold is if he was born and spent his whole life in Botswana, Qatar, or Southern California. But the inhabitants of the northern regions are well aware of the feeling when “a tooth doesn’t hit a tooth” or “frost makes its way to bones”.
In the article, we will consider how the body reacts to cold, why it can shiver for no apparent reason. And also we will tell you where it is not worth traveling to the most frozen, and how low temperatures are used for the benefit of mankind.
Why is it cold?
Let's consider in more detail. The word "cold" has a lexical meaning. So called low air temperature, talking about the time of year or a particular area. This concept denotes bad weather, frost, cold and an uncomfortable feeling in which a person feels chills.
When people are cold at low ambient temperatures, this is a normal physiological condition. Especially if a person has not slept, is hungry or is easily dressed. The feeling of cold is the body's response to heat loss, which is controlled by the process of thermoregulation.
It happens that a person often becomes chilly even in warmth or in good weather: fingers and toes freeze, reduces jaws and the skin is covered with "goose bumps". These are signs of a violation of thermoregulation, and the cause is a disease of the cardiovascular, endocrine or circulatory system.
In this case, it does not hurt to undergo an examination and certainly postpone trips to the frosty regions of the planet.
This is cold!
The coldest point on the planet where people live and work is the Russian Antarctic station Vostok. July 21, 1983 there was a record low air temperature on our planet. Then the thermometer fell to the level of -89.2 ° C.
Residents of the Yakut village of Oymyakon are well aware of what cold is, because in the most severe winters the temperature here drops to -78 ° C. Verkhoyansk and Yakutsk are slightly warmer, the minimum indicators in these cities are -68 ° and -65 ° .
Going to the center of Arctic tourism, the village of Barentsburg on Spitsbergen, it is worth considering that in March it can be up to -40 ° .
And in the northernmost US city - Utkiagwick (formerly Barrow), Christmas is celebrated at temperatures up to -48 ° C. By the way, this is where the plot of the American horror film “30 Days of Night”, the drama “Everyone Loves the Whales” and the thriller “On Ice” unfolds.
Cold eyes of filmmakers
Survival in extreme conditions is a favorite topic of the creators of modern films. To experience first hand what cold is, the heroes of many popular paintings had to:
- Through Snow is a fantastic action movie of 2013.
- "The Day After Tomorrow" - a master blockbuster of Roland Emmerich 2004
- “6 feet deep” - adventure drama 2017
- Frozen is a spectacular horror movie of 2010.
- “The Secret of the Dyatlov Pass” is a joint work of Russian and American filmmakers in 2013.
- "Whiteout" - a thriller about the first maniac in the history of Antarctica, 2009
However, you should not consider cold in the sense of only destructive and destructive. With the development of modern technology, people have learned to use negative temperatures for their own benefit.
The creative power of the cold
If you think about the application of cold, the first appliance comes to mind. It replaced traditional cellars and glaciers in the 19th century. This is a refrigerator. And today, cold is literally indispensable in many areas of human life:
- in the food industry, pharmaceuticals and agriculture;
- in the chemical industry and energy;
- in cosmetology: cooling procedures such as cryosauna, cryo-peeling, cryomassage, cold liposuction and, of course, ordinary ice cubes;
- cryotherapy in medicine;
- cryonics: deep cooling of the human body, animal or individual parts and organs in the expectation of the possibility of recovery or cure in the distant future.
Even in domestic conditions with severe headache or joint pain, nosebleeds, or bruising, we often use a cold compress and say so: “apply cold” or replace this word with synonyms.
Synonyms of the word and interesting facts
Synonyms for the word "cold" are known to everyone. These are frost, cold, winter, oak tree, colds and even more than 50 concepts that mean lowering the temperature and the associated discomfort. Do you know what absolute zero is? You will learn about this from a selection of interesting facts about the cold:
- Absolute zero temperature is the minimum possible minus limit that a material object in the entire Universe can have. This indicator is -273.15 ° C and in practice it is impossible to achieve.
- What is cold and pain associated with it? In humans, they begin at t = +17 ° C.
- According to sad statistics, in 2014 in Russia 10,283 people died from hypothermia. This is only 2.5 thousand less than AIDS deaths.
- If you dress warmly and breathe properly, you can even take a walk at a temperature of -70 ° C without fear for health.
- Smoking in the cold at times increases the risk of developing heart and lung diseases.
- The most cold-resistant organisms on the planet are multicellular animal rotifers that survive even in liquid helium at a temperature of -271 ° C.
There are situations when the meaning of the word “cold” acquires a meaning that is not connected in any way with the temperature of the surrounding air. Let's consider further.
"It will freeze who is born with a cold heart"
This phrase belongs to the poet and literary critic Albert Egorovich Vaneev and refers to people incapable of normal human feelings: love, friendship or empathy. About such we can say that a grave cold emanates from them.
This is also the name of the mind when it comes to a person to whom the goal is more important than feelings and emotions. Hence the cold calculation and illegibility in the choice of means to achieve the goal.
In general, the word “cold” has figurative meanings that are mostly negative in color:
- This is the cold that ran down my back when a man was frightened by something.
- Cold in the eyes of one who is indifferent and indifferent to everything that happens.
However, people have learned to conquer this phenomenon of both souls and bodies. Vivid examples of this are wonderful tales: “Frost” or “The Snow Queen”, in which there is always some truth and a happy ending.