The Canadian Arctic

Austin and I watched a couple very different shows today that took place in the Canadian arctic. The first was an episode of Licence to Drill - The Big Freeze - Part 1, a Discovery Channel show about oil and gas drilling in the North. The second was another Discovery Channel show this time about the Hunt for the Mad Trapper, a story that I grew up hearing about as a child in the Yukon.

Austin's first major observation is that the arctic is not a place that he'd like to live. It's incredibly harsh and unforgiving. This lead to a discussion of how people could have survived in this climate for 1000's of years.

We touched a little on the high protein diet that is required in those climates but we spent most of our time talking about heat and the difference between convection and conduction (we didn't get into radiation yet). The conversation started out talking about igloos and why a cold substance like snow (frozen water) could possibly keep you warm when the outside temperature was -40C or colder. We talked about how heat moves through air (convection and conduction) and how trapping air into many little pockets forces the heat energy to use conduction as the main method for energy transfer (and air is a poor conductor). We used the blankets around us as an example and also talked about the difference between basic coolers and well made coolers (the foam insulation in the better cooler works in the same way).

We then got up and pretended to be air molecules bouncing around. I had Austin stand on the opposite side of the room and be "cold". I was a hot molecule that was being moved to the other side of the room by convection and bumped into him with noticeable force. The next time I used "conduction" to transfer the energy to him and simulated bumping into each air molecule next to me, loosing some energy each time. By the time I got to him I had very little energy left and so he only "warmed up" a little.

We finally touched a little on different fabrics and how they help keep us warm (or cool). We talked about how cotton can be deadly in the North or Temperate climates as it keeps the cool water close to your skin but doesn't trap it in place like Neoprene. This results in the water (a good conductor of heat) essentially sucking the heat off your body. However, this is probably what you want if you are in a hot or tropical climate. Synthetic fabrics like "dry-fit" moves moisture away from your body before it can draw off the heat. And wool will retain heat wet or dry in a similar way that Neoprene works (heat gets trapped against the body).