Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!physics.utoronto.ca!neufeld
Newsgroups: sci.space
From: neufeld@physics.utoronto.ca (Christopher Neufeld)
Subject: Re: A human being in vacuum
Message-ID: <1990Dec13.191138.27152@helios.physics.utoronto.ca>
Organization: University of Toronto Physics/Astronomy/CITA
References: <1990Dec12.183847.13785@helios.physics.utoronto.ca> <5722@testeng2.misemi>
Date: 14 Dec 90 00:11:39 GMT

In article <5722@testeng2.misemi> stanfiel@testeng2.UUCP () writes:
>In article <1990Dec12.183847.13785@helios.physics.utoronto.ca> neufeld@physics.utoronto.ca (Christopher Neufeld) writes:
>>   I'd be curious to know what is the rate of heat loss which a human
>>body experiences in 15 degree water or zero degree air, both of which
>>are surviveable with no special equipment, if not particularly
>>comfortable.
>Survivable, yes, but for how long? Obviously, time is a very important
>fctor in these calculations, as heat loss cannot be instantaneous,
>however large the delta t may be.
>
   In the context of this discussion heat loss will only be important if
it kills you in less than about fifteen minutes, and that's really
pushing it. By then, anoxia is likely to have started you inexorably on
the way to maximum entropy.
   I'm sure that people could survive for fifteen minutes in the
environments I mentioned. I'd just like to know what the rate of heat
loss is in those conditions. A human in vacuum, shaded from warm
objects, would radiate about 500 watts.

>Chris Stanfield, Mitel Corporation: E-mail to:- uunet!mitel!testeng1!stanfiel


-- 
 Christopher Neufeld....Just a graduate student  |
 neufeld@helios.physics.utoronto.ca    Ad astra! |  S = k log W
 cneufeld@{pnet91,pro-micol}.cts.com             |    Boltzmann's epitaph
 "Don't edit reality for the sake of simplicity" |