Discussion
How the Turner Twins Are Mythbusting Modern Gear
jldugger: > the data showed that on summit night, the average body temperature difference between the twin in modern down and the twin in complicated layers of silk, wool, and gabardine was a staggering 1.8°C. > “In a hundred years, you’ve gained—arguably—one degree of efficiency per 50 years,” Ross reveals.Depending on where the baseline is, 1.8 degrees could be huge! But more importantly, heat dissapation is a non-linear function. The warmer you are relative to your environment, the more energy is lost. While Shackleton's kit forms a lower baseline, it probably makes sense to imagine how some imaginary perfect vacuum insulated sleeping bag would perform.
XorNot: I feel like downplaying 1.8 degrees C of performance is a weird choice in the article.1.8 degrees C is a huge temperature change in biology. Human bodies keep thermal equilibrium in a margin smaller then that.
fellowniusmonk: Also: Freezing right away when you stop moving at 8k altitude? I was just skiing at 11k and it never even crossed my mind.
margalabargala: This whole article is kind of a straw man anyway.Warmth of clothing isn't actually what people care about. What people care about, and what the article does not mention, is warmth per unit weight.
Scarblac: 8k meters. There is no place at 11k where you can ski.
ChrisMarshallNY: That's pretty cool. They talk about how getting period clothes basically required custom work.Must be pricey.
MagnumOpus: Yes. They were talking about 8,000 metres of altitude. (Talking about Mallory should have been a clue too.)
jhellan: The article says meters, not feet.
tenuousemphasis: There was a time not all that long ago that the most expensive thing most people owned was clothing.
obsidianbases1: I thought weight would be where the modern wear performed best.More surprisingly, the footwear of yore was apparently lighter
sneak: The idea that full grown identical twins are identical humans for purposes of analysis is also fundamentally flawed. Just because they share DNA and look the same doesn’t mean anything about their relative health, fitness, metabolic rates, etc.
next_xibalba: Isn’t there a chart showing weight by body part midway through the article?
margalabargala: Yeah, it shows the old gear is about two kilograms heavier than the new gear, which is huge.Considering that someone carrying 2 extra kilos will also be generating more body heat etc, the focus on heat over the rest of the article is in question.
altairprime: [delayed]
