Hot and sweaty after running around? Thank your sweat gland cells. They make sweat to keep you from getting too hot.
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Deep in your skin are tiny tubes rolled up like a ball of string. The cells that line these tubes are sweat gland cells.
They make sweat. Sweat travels up a thin tube and comes out of a tiny hole in your skin called a pore.
Press Make sweat on the 3D model to watch sweat travel up the tube.
When you get hot, your brain tells your sweat glands to get to work. Sweat is mostly water with a little bit of salt.
As sweat dries on your skin, it takes heat away with it. That cools you down!
Press Sweat drops to see sweat come out of the pore.
Home activity: Wet the back of one hand with water. Leave the other hand dry. Gently blow on both. The wet one feels cooler as the water dries, just like sweat!
Fresh sweat has almost no smell. Smells come from bacteria on your skin that munch on it.
By SciShow Kids. A fun video for kids.
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