At 10:57 AM 6/30/02, "Erik Reuter" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >On Sun, Jun 30, 2002 at 10:42:45AM -0500, Ronn Blankenship wrote: > > > > Only "close"?! > > > > > > I'm offended! ;-) > >Actually, yours are more accurate than mine :-) I tend to remember the >heat produced by an average body as 100W
Well, if you figure 2,000 Calories/day instead of 2,500 (as you say, humans vary), that number would be pretty close. And to be fair, in class I generally round it off to get 100W, so I can make the point that the amount of heat being generated by the average human body is about the same as that generated by a 100W light bulb (something with which most people are familiar), so the total amount of heat generated by the 30 or so bodies in the classroom is the same as if we put 30 100W bulbs in the room and turned them on, at which point the light usually goes on in a lot of eyes as they realize just why a room full of people gets so warm and stuffy so quickly. >and the sunlight as 1kW/m^2, so >I don't have to do the calculation or remember so many digits, I use the >round numbers. Of course, humans and sunlight vary, so without specific >details for each situation, the round numbers are fine. I know. But I figured I should give precise values for the number of Joules in a Calorie, the solar constant, etc, and having about half a dozen� scientific calculator programs available on this machine (not to mention the regular Windows calculator, MS Excel, and Mathematica), it wasn't too difficult to use those values to come up with an accurate answer. At least I didn't go to the lengths of figuring the maximum (ca. 21 June of each year) and minimum (ca. 22 Dec) altitude of the Sun as seen in Texas (which specific location?) and multiply the 1.37 kW/m� (measured at normal incidence outside the atmosphere) by sin h, then try to estimate the energy loss due to atmospheric absorption and scattering . . . _____ �Each one has features that the others don't. Which is why I still have my HP-16C, also. As well as an old Sharp or Casio financial calculator which prints out its results on a little tiny roll of paper. -- Ronn! :) Ronn Blankenship Instructor of Astronomy/Planetary Science University of Montevallo Montevallo, AL Disclaimer: Unless specifically stated otherwise, any opinions contained herein are the personal opinions of the author and do not represent the official position of the University of Montevallo.
