When I swim, if I just get out of the pool and dry off, it only takes me a minute to fully dry off.
If I take a poolside outdoor shower to get the chlorine off and then dry off, it takes considerably longer to dry off.
This confuses me - getting fully emersed in water should get make me more soaked… but the shower seems to get me more soaked…
I often think about this when taking a shower after swimming… the paradox of water
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My hypothesis: Getting out of the pool let’s the surface tension of the water pull most of it off of you as you exit the pool, while a shower coats you evenly in thousands of individual droplets that cannot connect with each other to become heavier
2 main factors here.
Time between getting out and wrapping yourself in a towel.
How much of your body is actually wetted.
The first means you have time to drop dry, before you grab your towel. It’s only 10s or so, but you can shed a lot of water in that time.
The second matters, since you tend to keep your head out of the water in the pool, but soak it in the shower. Wet hair can hold a lot of water. Even if you don’t dry your hair, the water will run down of the rest of you, as you dry yourself off.
Another point is that the air after a shower is VERY humid, compared to being under the sun after swimming
OP mentions fully submerged so the hair should not matter.
But even then, it’s very likely that your head left the water long before the rest of you.
Finally a proper shower thought in this community haha.
Soap.
Soap breaks the surface tension of water (allowing it to break up whatever is on you). Shower/bath water will spread more evenly across your skin than chlorinated pool water.
good point but a poolside outdoor shower to rinse chlorine doesnt involve soap.
Post this on an ask science community, see what smart people have to say, and then get back to me, because I never really thought about it, but you’re right
Personally, I don’t notice this. It takes just as long to dry off from a shower as it does a dip in a pool.
Maybe pool water is heavier? Shower water is aerated and is more sticky?
Maybe.
Also maybe it’s a chemical thing, like the pool water having chlorine (and probably a few other chemicals) in it makes it bond to you less readily.
I’d imagine your standard for “fully dry” is just different for each of these.
I use the same metric each time, no longer dripping so I can get into the elevator without making a mess
