Xref: utzoo sci.space:20453 sci.space.shuttle:5631
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.space.shuttle
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: space news from April 2 AW&ST
Message-ID: <1990Jun1.044802.19753@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <1990May14.140220.5895@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu> <1990May15.160005.29719@utzoo.uucp> <21189@boulder.Colorado.EDU> <1990May31.131126.7884@unx.sas.com> <10340@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu>
Date: Fri, 1 Jun 90 04:48:02 GMT

In article <10340@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu> newman@tcgould.tn.cornell.edu (Bill Newman) writes:
>At sea level, you get very nearly .2 atm of O2.  People without special
>training can hike over passes which are nearly 20,000 feet (uh, 6000
>meters :-) though some of them will get altitude sickness trying...

In fact it is *just barely* possible to climb Mount Everest - 29,000ft --
without oxygen.  It's been done.  It's so marginal that it is possible
only because Everest is near the equator:  the overall atmospheric
circulation of Earth, warm rising air at the equator moving north and
then falling near the poles, slightly increases atmospheric density
at high altitude near the equator, just enough to make the peak of
Everest reachable.
-- 
As a user I'll take speed over|     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
features any day. -A.Tanenbaum| uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu