According to Science!, Luke Skywalker wouldn’t have survived a Hoth night by being shoved into a tauntauns belly. Science! also looked into midi-chlorians and concluded that they are a really stupid thing that never should have been mentioned.
According to Science!, Luke Skywalker wouldn’t have survived a Hoth night by being shoved into a tauntauns belly. Science! also looked into midi-chlorians and concluded that they are a really stupid thing that never should have been mentioned.
Having studied thermodynamics quite a bit, as well as having lived next to a doctor once, I must say that there are several Science! flaws in this assessment.
First, the tauntaun might be dead and not generating heat at the scale it would if it were alive, but as it would begin to decay immediately (and as bacteria on Hoth would be acclimated to such low temperatures), there would be heat being generated by the decay of the animal. Not a large amount, but it is additive.
Second, Luke would still be generating heat. Again, additive.
Third, The only way a mammal like a tauntaun could be able to survive in such a harsh environment is with a very thick layer of insulation…either insulating fat or a very thick hide or fur. Either way, Luke is inside of that insulation now, still generating his own body heat. This would definitely make it warmer, for the same reason a thick winter coat keeps you warm.
Fourth, it is Star Wars canon, and not to be questioned.
However, Keln, based on the well-known Calculus:
⌡se^x = sex + c (the ^ is implied and c is the nagging constant)
and whereas the Newtonian law of cooling can be reduced to the simplistic equation:
T = se^(-ct)
if s ≡ mammilian gag reflex constant which implies a c << 1, and substituting x for -ct, then it can be easily shown that the temperature loss is given by:
⌡T = ⌡se^x = sex + c
which means he does okay if he has sex and his partner nags him afterwards.
QED.
I read that thing yesterday, but couldn’t find a way to comment at io9.
Their conclusion was that Han would only have had around 15 minutes to find shelter. There was some discussion about maybe a tent, but that he wouldn’t have one with him. (yes, I’m too lazy to read it again today)
Now, it’s been a while since I watched the movie, but didn’t they fly over the next day and see them IN A TENT? A bright orange one, if I recall correctly.
All he was doing was keeping Luke warm while he set up the tent and got the heater fired up.
Seriously, if you want to criticize Star Wars films, DON’T choose this one!
(I’m using the word “you” to refer to io9 and Science!, not my fellow Moon-Nukers, of course.)
I actually was motivated to tackle this question myself once before. Doesn’t seem like they did much research, e.g., I would have gone off the body temp of arctic mammals which seems to be pretty consistent at around 39°C, although there is an obvious problem in making too many immediate assumptions about alien physiology, and “Newton’s Law of Cooling” fails for any number of reasons: ongoing heat generation of both Luke and possibly the tauntaun, significant insulation of the tauntaun’s surface, not to mention Luke (put in tauntaun still wearing his cold weather gear) etc. In real CSI you may use a program to adjust for parameters such as the person’s girth, if they’re wearing a sweater, etc. At this point, the scenario is complex enough that you just need to throw out Newton’s law of cooling altogether–it cannot be used to accurately model the situation.