Sunday, January 10, 2010

Seto Hall at night isn't cold at all


This past weekend the robotics team had to wake early to attend the FRC kickoff at Mckinley. So we had a sleepover at Seto Hall to make less of a hassle for parents and have a night of group bonding and games (If you think we actually had sufficient sleep from this you didn't see us at the kickoff). We spent all night inside Seto Hall with the air conditioning on. Let's just say that isn't the warmest of of things to do. AS I was receving carpet burns on the bottom of my feet from friction against my running, I remebered the problem about heat capacity. I than realized why the night was so cold.
Heat capacity, or heat coefficient, is the amount of energy it takes for a material to go up 1 degree celsis or the amount of energy it gives off to go down 1. As I looked around the big hall, I saw very few things that would give off enough erngy to the air to raise it one degree. Combined with the laws of of an ideal gas evening out the herat energy with the cold night air, seto Hall became very cold. The carpet, whch would normally have a higher heat capacity, was dimally small, so most of us spent the night in blankets or hopping around in sleeping bags. The Kickoff at the Mckinley gym was slightly warmer due to more human bodies to give off heat, but the night was wonderfully cold. It was very fun:)

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