Absolute zero question

Narj said:
So if there was a plane on a treadmill in absolute zero conditions, would a bear **** in the woods?
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Of course not, dont be ridiculous, its well known bears provide a valuable service for manking by pooing through queen bee's letterboxes.

Thats why theyre so angry, constantly getting stung and never getting the respect they deserve from us.
 
enigma27 said:
if 'atomic activity pretty much stops' does that mean we are basically suspended in time.. would cells degrade at all??

if not would we be able to suspend ourselves at zero and some point forward restart if no cell degradation had taken place?

FYI i have no idea what i am going on about.
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No. It wouldn't be possible to flash freeze a human right to the core instantly. Due to that, the slower cooling of the core will rupture cellular walls and effectively kill you.

Cryogenics is simply a matter of 'can we ever fix the damage in the future?'
 
Space is near enough absolute zero and 0 atmospheres pressure, what happens if you went into space without a space suit is pretty boring. 1 Atmosphere pressure difference is the same as diving to 10m of water, which is fairly inconsequential if you have ever been diving. As with the cold, you own body they will keep you alive for some time in space, you would slowly suffocate without oxygen before you froze.

If you went into some chamber tat was near absolute zero and yet filled with a liquid then you would initially start boiling off the liquid but in doing so loose internal body temperature and it wont be long before you freeze to death.
 
D.P. said:
Space is near enough absolute zero and 0 atmospheres pressure, what happens if you went into space without a space suit is pretty boring. 1 Atmosphere pressure difference is the same as diving to 10m of water, which is fairly inconsequential if you have ever been diving. As with the cold, you own body they will keep you alive for some time in space, you would slowly suffocate without oxygen before you froze.

If you went into some chamber tat was near absolute zero and yet filled with a liquid then you would initially start boiling off the liquid but in doing so loose internal body temperature and it wont be long before you freeze to death.
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This,

People often confuse "Temperature" with "Heat flow".

Deep space in shadow is pretty near absolute zero, but there is also no conductive process for you to lose heat by. It would be purely heat loss by radiation.

If you were wrapped in (Hypothetically non-insulating) Pantyhose to ensure that there was sufficient pressure over your skin to allow you to breathe from an oxygen supply without your blood boiling I suspect you could survive for quite a long time before freezing to death.

OTOH, if you are immersed in water at 20C (IE the same temperature as a warm living room) without any protection, you will eventually die of hypothermia.

Survival time is typically between 2 and 40 hours (Heat loss by conduction) some people survive it much better than others.
 
For some reason I thought this was a XKCD whatif question that's been answered long ago... alas looking through the records, couldn't find anything :(
 
hornetstinger said:
If there was a room that was at absolute zero, how long would I survive? Could I open the door, rush in and out?
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My marginally educated stab at an answer:

It would depend on what else was in the room. With a temperature difference of >300C then unless the rate of heat transfer was extremely low you'd lose heat so quickly you'd die pretty much instantly.

If the room was an almost perfect vacuum(*) and the floor was close enough being perfect thermal insulation you'd have about 10 seconds, maybe 15 at most, before you passed out. Heat loss in a vacuum is so small that until you died you'd be overheating rather than freezing and it would take millenia for your corpse to cool down appreciably.

* I put it that way because a perfect vacuum couldn't really be at absolute zero - if there's no matter, there's nothing to have any temperature.
 
adolf hamster said:
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Which turns into the question of could you survive in absolute zero in space.

Which the answer would be not long at all, if you breathe out so your lungs wouldnt explode your still dealing with the water on your skin and every orifice flash boiling (eyes, mouth, ears, downstairs, itd all be burning).

Probably a few seconds wouldnt kill you but boy they would not be an enjoyable few seconds.
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A person has been exposed to a vacuum harder than the vacuum of space (which isn't quite a vacuum) due to a failure during astronaut training. The chamber was repressurised as quickly as possible, but that wasn't particularly quickly. They passed out in 12 seconds. They survived and made a full recovery. His last memory before passing out was of the surface of his tongue boiling and that certainly wasn't enjoyable. But he did fully recover.

It's generally considered likely that if you breathe out you could probably survive a minute in a vacuum without permanent damage and a little longer with permanent damage. And no way would you be conscious after 15s. Oxygen deprivation is immediate, far more so than being unable to breathe in something similar to earth surface pressure.

So if you ever have to make a jump from one spaceship to another, breathe out, close your eyes and make sure there's someone on the other spaceship who will grab your unconscious body and put you into a survivable pressure as soon as possible.
 
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