someone is being wrong on the tv

[arduinna]

I am idly watching an old documentary show that involves some people who had to ditch into the North Sea, and the narrator has just earnestly and intently explained that "for a person in the water, hypothermia can begin when the temperatures of air and water added together is below 50 degrees Centigrade."

...

This is not an American show, and the narrator is definitely not American. So you would think he would have noticed how nonsensical that is.

(He does go on to say, quite accurately, that in the North Sea in winter, the temperature is far below that. I would be willing to go even further and say that the temperature of the North Sea is far below 122F even in the hottest days of summer.)

(hi!)

Comments

[sholio]

Hi!! :D

This actually is not wrong, it sounds like it's the Celsius equivalent of the 120 degree rule - if water temp + air temp is 120 degrees or less, you are at risk of hypothermia if you swim without a wetsuit. It's not so much a rule per se as a reminder that you can get hypothermic at *much* warmer temperatures than most people realize because water robs you of body heat so fast. So, say, if the water is 40 degrees and the air is 70 degrees, this adds up to 110 degrees and is unsafe even if the air feels warm enough to go swimming.

[arduinna]

Aha! This is good to know - first, that I really, really don't grok celsius in any sort of intuitive way, and second that this is of course exactly what the narrator was saying with "air and water temp combined" but again with the not grokking at all what the underlying numbers would be. But it makes perfect sense to me in fahrenheit.

Also, I'm cracking up at your example; when I was younger it wasn't unheard of for me to take a dip in the New England ocean on a hot May day, but then I went to the Caribbean on vacation and now I am ruined for life. Heh. Water should be warrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrm.

Thanks!