Black robes will supposedly keep you cooler. They are open at the bottom, and as the sun heats them up the air inside the robe rises, and cooler air comes in the bottom, so your skin is cooled by a constant convection current of moving air.
This is all a sidebar in an old physics textbook. I'm not sure I beleive it, since another sidebar is all about how one of the authors shattered his teeth with liquid nitrogen while trying to demonstrate the lidenfrost effect...
Originally Posted by
Niles H.
I just came across this,
I have family in the Western Sahara and visit them every year, although I haven't been in the summer yet.
They don't sit around in the sun and if they go out in the day they cover up. Their clothes are loose, not fitted and although you think they would be hot the clothes make you feel cooler!
The houses have been built well and inside it is cool, they don't need air-conditioning in their house. I have never had trouble sleeping because of the heat.
They have a siesta at the hottest time of day.
They don't eat 3 big meals a day, they eat about 5 small meals.
There are more people out and about in the evening, when it is cooler.
Why do Tuaregs (among others) dress like that? Wouldn't you think that all that cloth (however loose) would heat things up a bit??
I've never seen a cyclist in Tuareg wear; but maybe it would make some kind of sense, at times at least?
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Five small meals?
Why this, for desert heat??