Hi there! Have you ever felt those tiny bumps on your skin when you’re cold? They’re called goosebumps! Let’s find out why we get them and what they do.
When you get cold, you might notice little bumps popping up on your skin. These are called goosebumps because they look like the skin of a bird without feathers. If you look closely, you’ll see that the tiny hairs on your arms stand up when you get goosebumps.
Scientists have discovered that many animals, like cats and birds, get goosebumps too! When a cat gets cold, its fur stands up, making it look fluffy. Birds do the same with their feathers, making them look puffed up. This helps keep them warm by trapping air close to their bodies, like a cozy coat.
For animals, having their fur or feathers stand up helps them stay warm. But for us humans, it doesn’t really help much because we don’t have thick fur. Even though goosebumps don’t keep us warm, they show that we have something in common with animals!
Isn’t it cool to learn about why we get goosebumps? There are so many mysteries around us waiting to be explored. Keep asking questions and stay curious!
Goosebump Detective: Next time you feel cold or scared, pay attention to your skin and see if you get goosebumps. Try to notice what other feelings or situations might cause goosebumps. Share your observations with your family or friends and see if they have similar experiences!
Animal Observation: Go on a nature walk or watch a nature documentary and look for animals with fur or feathers. Can you spot any animals that fluff up their fur or feathers? Draw a picture of an animal you saw and explain how their fluffiness helps them stay warm.
Warmth Experiment: With the help of an adult, try wearing different layers of clothing to see how it affects your warmth. Start with a t-shirt, then add a sweater, and finally a coat. Notice how each layer traps air and keeps you warmer, just like how animals use their fur or feathers. Discuss how this experiment relates to the concept of goosebumps and staying warm.
Sure! Here’s a sanitized version of the transcript:
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[PHONE RINGING] Hi, it’s Doug. So I am walking into my kitchen and opening my freezer because I want to purposely put my arm in the freezer. You know why? I’m trying to get goosebumps on purpose. You know when you’re cold, you get those little bumps on your skin? Well, Trevor had a question about goosebumps. Let’s actually get him on the line now. Here, I’ll call him. [PHONE RINGING] Hi, Doug. Hey, Trevor. Why do we get goosebumps when we are cold? That’s a great question, Trevor. Have you ever gotten goosebumps? Check them out up close. What do you notice there? Maybe you’ve noticed that your skin gets all these little raised bumps everywhere. That’s why people call them goosebumps. Where does the “goose” in the word come from, though? Well, people thought the bumps kind of look like the skin of a bird when it doesn’t have feathers, if you’ve ever seen that. But notice something else, too. This is a close-up of someone’s arm. Watch what happens when they get goosebumps. Whoa, you see that? Now this person has pretty dark hair on their arms. Watch again. Pay attention to what those little hairs are doing. Did you see it? All the little hairs are moving. When you get goosebumps, the little bumps make those hairs go straight up. Now, you might not have nearly as much hair on your arms as this person does. But if you look closely at your arm right now, you’ll see there’s little hairs like this all over. So your hairs stand up when you get goosebumps. But why? Why would your hair stand up when you get cold? One thing scientists have found helpful is to look at the bodies of other living things besides just human beings, like to look at the bodies of animals. Sometimes that leads to clues. And here’s a clue. It turns out that many animals get goosebumps when they’re cold, too. Look at this. This is what a cat looks like when it has goosebumps. Now because it’s furry, it’s hard to see bumps on its skin. But notice how its hair stands up, too, just like ours does. Cats do this when they’re cold. See, normally, their fur would just look like this. You see the difference? And you can see it on birds, too. Birds don’t have hair, but they do have feathers coming out of their skin. And those feathers stand up when they’re cold, just like hair does. It makes the bird look puffed up. See, here’s what this bird would look like normally when it doesn’t have goosebumps. You can look for this next time you see a bird early in the morning. They’re still cold from the nighttime. So they’re often all puffed up like this. Why do you think animals’ hair or feathers might puff up when they’re cold? Do you think there’s any way that might be helpful to them? If you want to take a moment to think about that, pause the video now. OK, you ready? One idea scientists had is that maybe by puffing up their hair or feathers, that somehow keeps them warmer. By using a thermometer, scientists can measure how warm or cold the air is. It turns out, when a cat puffs up its fur like this or a bird puffs up its feathers, scientists figured out that puffing up keeps the air warm near the animal’s body. Puffing up like that makes the fur or feathers act like a thick, comfy coat. So to solve the mystery, why do we get goosebumps? Human beings and many animals often get goosebumps when they’re cold. Their skin raises up these little bumps, which makes their hairs stand straight out. For animals, that helps them stay warm. For human beings, it doesn’t really help us stay warm. If we were furry, it would help. But we just don’t have very thick hair on our bodies. The fact that we do get goosebumps might seem kind of silly or useless. But it shows we have something in common with animals. That’s all the time we have for this week. Thanks, Trevor, for asking why we get goosebumps. For next week, I reached into my question jar and found three questions that you all submitted to me that I’m thinking about answering next. You can vote on them at the end of this video. There’s, why do stars twinkle? Could a turtle live outside of its shell? Or why are rubies red? So submit your vote when the video’s over. I want to hear from all of you watching. Remember, there are mysteries all around you. Have fun. And stay curious.
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