But… You Didn’t Ask!
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[NOTE: After the last two day's exhaustive post (I don't know about you, but I'm bushed!), I thought we might just have a quickie today.]
Have you ever gone to the trouble to thoroughly research something, expending tremendous effort to resolve an issue? Then, when you’ve gone as far as you can go, you just can’t help the feeling there’s something missing? Something, well, obvious staring you right in the face?
Don’t you just hate it when that happens?
Take the case of the Bedouins. In 1969, four scientists (all non-Bedouins) wondered why a group of Bedouins they knew all wore black robes and herded black sheep through the deserts of the Negev, one of the hottest places on Earth.
To the uninitiated, this would seem to be counterproductive, since even junior-high science students know that dark-colored objects absorb more sunlight that light-colored ones, causing them to get hotter. On the other hand, you’d think Bedouins would know the best ways to manage heat, right? After all, they lived there.
So, since they were, you know, scientists, they conducted an experiment, measuring the amount of heat that passed inwards towards the body of a nameless, but heroic, volunteer. While standing in the hot sun of the Negev, his body temperature was measured while he wore 1) a black robe, 2) a similar, but white, robe, 3) an army uniform, and 4) shorts.
As expected, the black robe absorbed more heat than the white one, reaching a much higher temperature (see the diagram). What was surprising, though, is the body underneath did not get any hotter! Our intrepid researchers discovered a black robe dissipated heat more quickly than a white robe, thus equalizing the heat to the wearer.
But if they’re equal, you ask, then why black and not white? Well that, as it turned out, is an animal of a different color.
We now turn to one of my favorite websites, Improbable Research (tagline: Research that makes people LAUGH and then THINK). There’s a note from investigator Mike Adams, who writes about that report, and he says, “Many years ago I heard Knut Schmidt-Nielsen, famous for his work on adaptations to desert conditions, talk about this. He said that he finally asked the Bedouins why they used black wool.
Their answer? ‘All of our goats are black’.”
Moral of the story: If your research subject can talk, well, it probably wouldn’t hurt to just ask ‘em!
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8 responses so far
Middle Zone Musings is a comfortable place to stop, have a cup of coffee, swap a few stories and share practical ideas for the real world. I don't ask for much, just a bit of your brain every now and then. Have a seat, take a load off, and relax...
and all this time I thought it was because black was a slimming color.
I still think those Bedouins just have good fashion scene
like in (black) cowboy hats—sorry I couldn’t resist
Hey, I wear the black hat because my hero, Chuck Norris, wears it! And, er, it is slimming… :-\
Haha, that’s awesome. Science for the win! I’ve actually started my senior project this week, and basically it’s two and a half hours of me asking participants to solve problems and generate responses to ambiguous situations. All very fun!
(I’d tell you what I’m actually looking for, but then I’d have to kill you. Very secret until I’m finished collecting data.)
Hey, Sam, it’s not, by any chance, like this, is it?
But on the other hand, don’t tell me; I DON’T want to know!
Actually, no. I’m specifically banning the formation of teams since my study has a far more basic goal in mind, but I have considered studying teamwork in my specific context in the future. The self-selection of team creation is interesting, though, and I don’t think I’ve seen or heard of any research done on it before. Something to ask the resident social psych professor.
Sam, I’d be interested to hear about it, once the seals of secrecy are broken and you can tell me without, you know, killing me. :-\
ROFL! This is a perfect illustration of how we come up with elaborate theories when the real answer is simple. Thanks for the laugh and new perspective on my black clothes. LOL!
Your conclusion on elaborate theories is so true, Karen. Nice to know, too, that black is indeed so, er, cool!