Re: THERMO

[Roger Haar <haar@PHYSICS.ARIZONA.EDU>]

Hi,

        If you remember your fourth grade science there
are three ways to lose heat: conduction,
convection, and radiation. Assuming that there is
no large warm solid objects to press against,
conduction is not important in space.  Convection
or the interaction with the gas might seem to be
important if the gas was at 700 C but there is so
little of it that the energy transferred is tiny.
Radiatively space is cold and so much more heat is
lost to radiation than is gained.

        The temperature of a low pressure gas means the
same thing as gas at atmospheric pressure.  At a
given temperature, if you measure the energy per
atom or molecule you get the same average for any
pressure ( assuming ideal gases)  The velocity
distributions will be the same as well.

Thanks
Roger Haar

******************************************************
David Abineri wrote:
> How does one explain the concept  of its being perhaps 700 degrees C
> high in the atmosphere but that an person would freeze to death (if not
> succumb to some other fate) if exposed up there?
>
> What would it mean to have a temperature of 700 degrees C in empty space?
>
> Thanks for any hints on this, I am sure it is a simple idea.
>
>     David Abineri
>
> --
> David Abineri
> dabineri@choice.net