Re: In The Cool Of The Evening...

Dorothy J Heydt <djheydt@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Now, when it's 100F outside in the daytime and 95F at night, that's
too hot (for anybody but maybe Keith), so we want to cool it down to
something more reasonable, like 70 maybe. If we can get it no lower
than (say) 85, we'll lie on the bed with nothing over us, not even
pajamas.

I wasn't questioning what anyone's preferred temperature was; I was
questioning why anyone would pay to make it cooler *and* wear warm
coverings in bed.

The only reason I would cover myself in bed is if I were too cold or
if I were sharing the room with someone other than a lover.

If it's twenty below zero outside with a windchill factor of
Godawful, we want to heat it up to something more reasonable,
like 70 maybe. If we can only heat it up to 50 or so, we'll
pile on the blankets.

Sure, that makes sense. Even if you can get the heat up to 70 or
more, you might not want to, to save money. But setting an air
conditioner to a higher temperature, or turning it off entirely,
doesn't cost money, it saves money.

In one of Asimov's Lucky Starr stories, Starr is taken in by the
mysterious Elder Martians, who put him in a very warm room. Then
they ask why he's sweating. He says it's awfully warm, and they
say, "But we've carefully heated this space to your own body
temperature." But when he explains, they turn it down some.

I think the Martians would be smarter than that. Thermodynamics is
the same everywhere. Anything with a positive metabolic rate needs
to lose heat to the environment, which means the environment has to
be either cooler or drier.

A more likely mistake is giving him water to drink that's just as
salty as his blood. There are plenty of creatures here on Earth
that consume water that's saltier than their blood.
--
Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/
Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html before emailing me.
.

Relevant Pages
Loading