On Sun, 23 May 2004 23:48:15 UTC, Bullwinkle
wrote:

: Ebullism is the phenomenon which occurs at or above Armstrong's Line,
: classically 63,000 feet, in which the total barometric pressure falls below
: the partial pressure of water in the body, thus the equilibrium shifts, and
: the body begins to give up water to the environment. "Blood boiling" is the
: somewhat sensationalized term for this. People visualize exploding bodies,
: and it doesn't actually happen that way. It is a very bad thing, and would
: likely be fatal, although a short exposure (a few seconds) is likely
: survivable.

I should have mentioned that even at a saturation temeperature of 38C,
the enthalpy of vapourisation is still 2411kJ/kg. Since the specific
heat capacity is around 4.2kJ/kgK, this means that to boil off 1kg of
fluid, the body temperature of an 80kg adult would have to drop by
2411/(4.2 * 80) = 7.2C. Hmm. not sure how important this is, but it's
early in the morning and I have the steam tables open beside me anyway
....

ian


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