From: spike66 (spike66@attbi.com)
Date: Tue Jan 07 2003 - 22:24:30 MST
> On Tue, 7 Jan 2003 ABlainey@aol.com wrote:
>
>>If I am right in my assumption, then wouldn't that kind of heat cause
>>problems for any out of solar system travel we have in the future?
No. If the hot gas is sufficiently tenuous, it is no
problem. Try this experiment: place a piece of aluminum
foil in the oven at 400. Reach in and pick up the foil
with your bare hand. No burn. Grind a piece of steel
and place your hand in the stream of tiny sparks that
come off of the piece. No burn. In both cases you touch
something that is hot but its mass is low. In the second
case, the steel particles are hot enough to glow, but
you feel almost nothing.
If you were in a cloud of gas at a million K you would
never notice, so long as its density was .1 atoms per cc.
spike
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