I thought maybe they should ask “liter for liter”, but the Sun’s average density is 1410 kg/m^3, and a human is about 1000.

Speaking of stellar density, I know a giant star expands by a huge factor and therefore has a much lower average density, but OTOH the Sun has its corona. So is there a qualitative way to define the difference between main-sequence and giant stars without knowing their histories?

It seems that there was some skerrick of knowledge that the *density* of the sun at the surface, compared to the density of a people, was considerably less, and somehow that got converted to a comparison of radiative units (my words, not theirs). The answer was still so bad “it wasn’t even wrong”, but it helped to understand what the questioner’s grasp of the concept was.

And yeah, “pound for pound” (why, oh why, do Americans still think in 17th century units of measure?) there are a couple of layers to the question, as mentioned above. For example, a pound of (mainly) hydrogen wouldn’t undergo fusion, so it would radiate less (be “cooler”) than a pound of a person.

My immediate response to pseudo-scientific comparisons like this is to ask the questioner to arrange for a “pound” of the sun… That usually breaks the spell.

… that misty glow; those lovely sparkles…

Scopes won’t give that.

Dullea’s character was DAVE Bowman, not Frank Bowman. The other guy was Frank Poole. (Who comes back from the dead in _3001_, but that’s a different story.)

“A mouse running on a tradmill generates more power, gram-for-gram, than the sun does. Therefore, a one-solar-mass mouse would be hotter than the sun. Of course, then, you’d have to FEED it….”

This led me to create a Champions character named SOLARMOUSE:
http://www.rogermwilcox.com/Champions/solarmouse.html

That’s not a cop-out. Another example is, “which are larger, birds or cats”? Well, I’ve seen house cats hunt birds all the time, so — easy answer, right? Not quite. “Bird” and “cat” are vague terms in that the former include hummingbirds and ostriches, and the latter include housecats and lions. You can make any pairing of bird and cat to get any answer you want. If you want to compare populations, there are a number of ways to do it. The question’s just too vague.

One fundamental to science is learning how to ask the right questions!

This is all part of the same theme which explains why elephants have big ears and why mice each day have to eat a much greater proportion of their body weight than we do. If I was as fat as the sun I’d be pretty hot in the middle too, and that’s precisely *because* I would then be getting rid of heat proportionately less rapidly than I was generating it.

As you may recall before he entered the open airlock he grimaced, closed his eyes tightly shut and held his breath. This might actually be a wise move during a very short exposure to outer space because he’s making the ‘package’ of his body as tightly contained as possible. Once inside he was able to repressurize quickly while still holding his breath. Minimal time exposed is likely a key factor.

I’ve seen this data before and can’t remember where(it was 40 years ago). Maybe Heinlien, Asimov or Clark pointed it out,,,

So, if we spread out all the humans in a very flat film,,,would that act as a self propelled photon rocket? To the Stars, Rambo,,,we don’t need no extra stinking rocket,,,it’s built in,,,

Gary 7

Also, when you say “hotter” (outside the metasexual social meanings), you are necessarily talking about temperature and nothing else. It’s a disservice to people’s science education to accept incorrect definitions without correcting them. For the most part, Phil, you did this, but the whole luminosity per volume is a Bad Idea.

In this question, you are asked about Heat. May be the original question was vague, but how about I ask my own question.

Of course, I could probably solve this myself, but would be great to have your insight and explanation of it.

Q: Which gives off more heat per volume, the sun or a human being.
In other words, if you got enough human beings together such that their total volume equals the volume of the sun, what would be the temperature of that mass?