Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!decwrl!pa.dec.com!shlump.nac.dec.com!jareth.enet.dec.com!edp
From: edp@jareth.enet.dec.com (Eric Postpischil (Always mount a scratch monkey.))
Newsgroups: comp.sys.handhelds
Subject: Re: Wind Chill Index: HEAT LOSS, NOT TEMPERATURE
Keywords: Wind Chill
Message-ID: <19926@shlump.nac.dec.com>
Date: 7 Feb 91 13:26:11 GMT
References: <1991Feb6.234637.2628@src.honeywell.com> <1991Jan24.082451@ultnix.enet.dec.com> <1991Jan25.004430.19802@portia.Stanford.EDU> <7346@drutx.ATT.COM>
Sender: newsdaemon@shlump.nac.dec.com
Reply-To: edp@jareth.enet.dec.com (Eric Postpischil (Always mount a scratch monkey.))
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
Lines: 25

In article <1991Feb6.234637.2628@src.honeywell.com>, jcampbel@SRC.Honeywell.COM
(Jim Campbell) writes:

>At 0K, heat transfer happens by conduction (since the entire environment is
>solid) NOT convection as is normally the case when considering wind chill.

The situation was not 0K moving wind.  Rather, it was cold, but not 0K, moving
wind.

>Since conduction heat transfer is much more efficient than convection, a
>wind chill of below 0K is pretty much meaningless.

Okay, it was a VERY fast wind.  Remember, this is just theoretical -- nobody is
saying that it is actually going to happen, just that it is "possible" to lose
heat more quickly than one would lose heat from "air" at 0K.

>I do not believe that Wind Chill Index would be a measure of anything when
>it returns a value below absolute zero.

It's a measure of heat loss.


				-- edp (Eric Postpischil)
				"Always mount a scratch monkey."
				edp@jareth.enet.dec.com