Andrea wrote:
> On Tue, 23 Jan 2001, Charlie Bell wrote:
>
> [temperatures in C]
>
> > 46 - death to humans...
>
> Er, no.
Er, yes.
You can't survive 46 degrees indefinitely. At least, that's what I was
taught in physiology class. Above an ambient temperature of 46 degrees C
(mean, the individual point is affected by fluid levels, fitness, fat levels
and so on), you can't maintain thermal equilibrium, your core temperature
gradually rises and you will die.
OK, even at a few degrees above this, you have quite a few hours (by which
time, under normal conditions, it's night-time and hopefully cool again...).
And you can also control your body temperature by sitting in a breeze,
drinking cold water and so on, hence people can live in Arabia, where it is
known to get into the 50s.
> Now, I wouldn't want to be in that sort of heat all day long, but it
> certainly isn't instant death.
Never said it was instant death. It's the point at which point you can't
maintain equilibrium any more. There is a large body of work (mainly dating
from Nazi Germany...) on hypothalamus function and thermal control. This was
a byproduct of the Nazi attempts to develop some form of mind control.
Gets to around 45-8 here in very warm years. Decidedly unpleasant.
Charlie
