Originally Posted by
MinnMan
I'm not taking a position on base layer or no, but you've got the physics wrong. The cooling effect comes from the heat of evaporation - the energy required to transform liquid water to vapor - resulting in a net decrease in heat (well, really, enthalpy) on your skin. Just dripping off has no effect on your skin temperature.
You are only looking at one aspect of physics, cooling from evaporation. There is another aspect of physics too, moving the heat away from you.
So letting the sweat which contains a lot of heat drip off of you will keep you from getting hotter instead of retaining all that heat around you. I suppose if you are going to get me on a technicality, then that isn't cooling per se, but simply a way to get less hotter..