Jeff7
Lifer
- Jan 4, 2001
- 41,596
- 19
- 81
Unfortunately, "What?" is ambiguous as well.
At work, I often encounter things that need to be repeated to me a few times, because my brain ends up rejecting what I hear because it's so far-fetched if I am hearing it right. (Or else because the person describing it is using a grossly incorrect term. "The big black capacitor? Oh, you mean 'PIC chip.' That's why I was confused." For some people, all electronic components are capacitors, but it's not always immediately clear that this is the case - then they treat me like the idiot for not knowing what they're talking about.)
If I notice an ongoing issue or difficulty with some aspect of production, I ask what's currently being done to remedy it. The solutions given tend to be so outlandishly silly or bizarre that I immediately assume that I must have heard something incorrectly.
At some point, the "What?" turns into the incredulous form of "What?" expressed with disbelief and amazement.
I like to solve problems meticulously, precisely, thoroughly, and with future efficiency gains in mind.
The culture here solves problems with a large, cheap hammer. Not fixed yet? Hit it harder, or use a bigger hammer - then complain because the fix is just barely functional, and it also increases the amount of labor required to do the job.
Then another 50 brain cells die, realizing that their services are not likely to be required ever again.:\
Self-generated forced convection cooling of a human body:
Ok, let's try this example: Imagine that you sweat something very volatile, let's say it's pure isopropyl rubbing alcohol. It evaporates quite rapidly, and will get very cold if air is directed over it. If you were to lightly fan yourself while drenched in alcohol like this, I have little doubt that the net effect would be a reduction in the total amount of thermal energy present in your body. It doesn't take much energy to fan yourself, or at least it shouldn't - you don't need to be fanning at 500Hz to get air moving. Any air movement is going to give some improvement over free convection. (Yes, the degree of improvement will vary based on various factors, such as speed, object geometry, surface roughness, and a few others.) So just gently fan yourself with a thin notebook or bowed piece of paper. Very low energy use, while causing rapid evaporation of the highly volatile isopropyl sweat.
Whatever case, unless anyone has any others, the things that would need to be quantified for a proper control are:
1) Energy of vaporization of sweat.
2) Relative humidity.
3) Air temperature.
4) Air speed resulting from fanning.
5) Geometry of the body region affected.
6) Energy expenditure required to move the muscles, and of that, the portion that is converted to heat.
Maybe some college professor or class has already done this study - and hopefully not been debunked, like the "Most body heat is lost through your head" thing, or "drink 8-10 glasses of water a day." (Apparently, each was based on a flawed interpretation of a snippet of data.)
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