Re: Sea Water Temperatures and the AAT (was: Re: Guide for anti-AATers)
Phillip Bigelow (n8010095@cc.wwu.edu)
1 Nov 1995 14:31:12 -0800
jthurb@aol.com (JTHURB) writes:
>Unfortunately, you seem to have jumped to some very tenuous conclusions in
>your announcement of the AAT's impending death from hypothermia.
>From my 7 Oct post::
>I believe that you might want to account for the fact that mammals
>generate heat. Humans can withstand water temperatures somewhat less
>than 98.6 degrees F indefinitely.
>I used to have a large graph showing survival times vs. sea water
>temperatures when I taught survival courses for the Navy. As I remember,
>it gave you about 7 minutes to live at 28 degrees F. and forever
>somewhere around 90 degrees F.
I have seen Navy (and U.S.C.G.) survival charts that you mention. I
should point out (and I should have done this before, but I erroneously
assumed that everyone knew the difference) that "survival time in the water"
is NOT AT ALL the same quantity as being in "thermal equilibrium" with the
water. I am sorry for not pointing that out to you.
In order to disprove that an ADAPTATION is present for an aquatic
existance, while having no protective hair, we need to find out whether
humans (and their purported aquatic ancestors) were in THERMAL EQUILIBRIUM
with ambient water temperature.
It is possible to SURVIVE indefinately in warm water, but you may not be
in thermal equilibrium with the water (in other words, you are STILL loosing
core heat IN SPITE of the fact that you "feel Okay".
Keep in mind that if the hypothetical hairless ape is NOT in thermal
equilibrium with the ambient water temp., over the timespan of it's life,
this poor creature may STILL suffer from thermic-related illnesses.
As I said, falsification may be looming on the horizon for the AAT.
<pb>
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