Quotes

“You must have been warned against letting the golden hours slip by; but some of them are golden only because we let them slip by.” James M. Barrie

“I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free." Michael Angelo

Sunday, January 15, 2012

A Line Separating Life from Death

Armstrong’s line is named after Harry George Armstronga man who made significant contributions in the field of aviation medicine. At around 63,000 feet or 12 miles high, Armstrong’s line is a point in our atmosphere where water changes from the liquid state to the gaseous state at human body temperature (98.6˚F). Upon reaching such an altitude, things like tears, sweat, saliva, and any other water content in the body will boil causing a slow and painful deathincluding blood?

The reason water boils at this altitude is mainly due to atmospheric pressure. At higher altitudes there is lower pressure than at lower altitudes. Being in a lower pressure environment (higher in the atmosphere), less vapor pressure is needed to boil water; therefore a lower temperature is needed to boil water.

In case you are wondering, according to americasblood.org, plasma accounts for 55% of the blood in a human body and 90% of plasma is made up of water. So concluding that water makes up about 50% of a person's blood, it is true that the water content in the blood will boil. In addition to boiling, gas bubbles inside the bloodstream can at some point block blood flow in an artery causing the person to die of a heart attack.

Not to worry, because thanks to Mr. Armstrong, fighter pilots today have pressurized suits keeping them alive at such high altitudes. In addition, pilots continuously breathe on oxygen masks to compensate for the decrease in oxygen partial pressure. Without oxygen masks at 60,000 feet, exposed pilots would become incapacitated due to hypoxia in a matter of seconds.

There are some humans who have been close to 12 miles high without pressurized suits; one example is passengers in a Concorde.


Quote:
“As a day well spent brings happy sleep, so life well used brings happy death.” Leonardo DaVinci