[at-l] Wet T-shirt contest results,,,,finally

[rafe@oasissemi.com (Raphael Bustin)]

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At 08:55 AM 8/27/2002 -0400, sAunTerer wrote:


>"Evaporation is a cooling process" said my H.S. science teacher.

Absolutely correct.

>It seems
>to me that this would work better with cotton since cotton holds water
>longer therefore it would prolong the cooling process.  At least that's my
>(perhaps flawed) logical take on the wet tee shirt as walking A/C.  Wet
>cotton definitely cools even under wool or fleece.


But you lose me a bit here.  I would think that the wool or fleece over
the (wet) cotton would inhibit evaporation, after which the wet cotton
would quickly approach body temperature.

In any case, I don't see much point putting layers (of any kind) on top
of wet cotton.  I agree also -- if you arrive in camp with a wet T-shirt and
desire to get warm, first thing to do is remove the wet T-shirt and replace
it with something dry.

Side story:  Thanksgiving 1989.  Three of us left Pinkham Notch at around
10 PM, in the dark, on Thanksgiving day, to spend the night at Tuckermans
Ravine shelter.  It was a beautiful, starry, windless night.  I wore polypro
next to the skin, a cotton T over that, and a nylon anorak over that.  Felt
warm and quite comfortable on the trek uphill.  Arriving at Tuckermans, the
caretaker mentioned, "Y'all be careful tonight, it's going to get mighty
cold."
I hadn't noticed, but the air temperature was right around 0 degrees
Fahrenheit,
and would go down to -10 F during the wee hours.  We settled into our lean-to
and I began to peel off layers.  A few minutes later I noticed my T-shirt had
frozen solid.  Quite amusing, actually, I'd never seen a frozen wet T-shirt
before.
I didn't get to wear it again for another few days.


rafe b.
aka terrapin
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