Understanding Winter Thermal Conduction on Wooden Floors

[queuetea]

in winter, wooden floor feels cold to the barefoot but the rugs and carpets don not feel cold although the floor and carpet are at the same temperature?

 

[mfb]

Your feet are warmer than the floor, so heat is transported from your feet to the floor. Wood can do this quicker, therefore it feels colder.

 

[queuetea]

and why for the rugs and carpets do not feel cold although the floor and carpet are at the same temperature?

 

[mfb]

The conductivity is so low that you do not notice the effect. Both have a lot of air (bad conductor) and wool (another bad conductor, especially as it contains more air inside).

 

[queuetea]

okay thank you sir :)

 

[sophiecentaur]

Assume that the temperature of the inside of your foot is always the same and the temperature 'below the floorboards' is also the same. There will be a thermal gradient from your body tissue, across your skin, through any insulation and the floor. If the intermediate layer has low conductivity, the surface of your skin will have a higher temperature (It's not just an illusion) because there will be a greater temperature drop across the insulation layer and the overall rate of heat flow will be lower.

There is a direct analogue here with an electrical potential divider, consisting of a chain of resistors, where the PD is shared across the resistors. Inserting a high value of resistor in series with a resistor will reduce the total current, which will reduce the PD across the original resistor.