X-Message-Number: 17203
From: 
Date: Sun, 5 Aug 2001 03:21:40 EDT
Subject: Temperatures: Introducing the Cryo Scale

Louis Epstein:

Just to be sure I have all of this right, let me attempt to reiterate.  Since 
my first

TEMPERATURE Scale post, Robert Ettinger posts recognizing the
CENTIGRADE Scale as another name for the
CELSIUS Scale where Ben Best posts with the
KELVIN Scale and now you bring up the
RANKINE Scale though we are most comfortable with the good ole
FAHRENHEIT Scale where we probably could develop the
CRYO Scale--just to keep things uniform and simple.  : )

By the way, from that post you quoted, it would have been better if I had 
reworded it with the [bracketed words] to read:

QUOTE:
"...Answer on impulse. You have 1/2 second to respond to the following 
question:  You find yourself a victim of heat 
stroke.  Which would be worse [better], a sudden increase [drop] in ambient 
temperature of 5 degrees Celsius or 5 degrees Fahrenheit?"
UNQUOTE

That way, the answer that followed would have been more "meaningful":

QUOTE:
"So what are the answers from the two questions posed from above?  The first 
answer is that a Fahrenheit degree is not quite as substantial as a Celsius 
degree by a factor of 1.8 and therefore, while begrudgingly, the USA should 
probably make the switch [--if just for health reason alone!]"
UNQUOTE

While I am on a self-correction binge, I want to point out another error 
which may seem trivial but is actually quite important the more I think about 
it.  I wrote the following in that post:

QUOTE:
"Water goes from its freezing/melting point of 32 degrees Fahrenheit to its 
boiling point of 212 degrees..."
UNQUOTE

However, freezing points and melting points are not quite so interchangeable 
as I say/imply.  This "occurred to me" while more carefully reading Ben's 
explanation of some vitrification dynamics in the most recent edition of the 
Immortalist.  In fact, such a distinction appears to be rather paramount in 
vitrification physics.

Thanks, Louis, for pointing out Dr. Strehler's website in a post several 
weeks ago as part of your tracking the deaths of important people (note: 
Katharine Graham, 1917 - 2001) as it gave me the idea and interest for my LN2 
experiments with fire flies.  Next up is Lichens--an interesting symbiotic 
arrangement of algae and fungus--where I will be attempting successful 
suspended animation of these eukaryotic "plants."  I have located and 
transplanted my specimens to the base of a potted plant in "the lab" and am 
currently planning protocol.  Actually, just determining whether such 
organisms are alive or not can be surprisingly difficult.

Regards,

David C. Johnson

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