How Do We Calculate Outgoing Energy from Our Body Using Stefan-Boltzmann's Law?

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Homework Help Overview

The discussion revolves around calculating the outgoing energy from the human body using Stefan-Boltzmann's Law, considering both radiation and absorption of energy. The context includes thermal dynamics and heat transfer principles.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory, Conceptual clarification, Assumption checking

Approaches and Questions Raised

  • The original poster seeks guidance on the general approach to calculating outgoing energy without requiring a specific answer. Participants inquire about prior work and suggest showing raw calculations. There is a question regarding whether the human body can be considered a blackbody.

Discussion Status

Participants are actively engaging with the problem, prompting the original poster to provide more information about their attempts. Some have offered insights into the complexities of energy loss mechanisms, such as conduction and evaporation, while also discussing the emissivity of the human body.

Contextual Notes

There is an emphasis on understanding the factors affecting energy loss, including environmental conditions and the body's thermal properties. The original poster has indicated a preference for conceptual guidance rather than a complete solution.

cfkorea
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Using Stefan-Boltzmann's Law, Determine the quantity of

outgoing energy per unit time from Our Body.

The answer should be of form Watt(W).

You must consider that our body not only radiate but also absorp

energy.

Can anyone answer this question, please?

I don't need the exact answer but idea. thanx. :rolleyes:
 
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What have you done so far? You have to show some of your prior work.
 
This is raw problem.
 
Then show some raw work! :)
 
Tide said:
Then show some raw work! :)
:smile:

cfkorea, is the human body a blackbody?
 
Often, most of the energy lost by the body is not in the form of "black body radiation", but instead through conduction to the air and heat going to evaporate our sweat (latent heat).

Think about it, when it is above 37C outside, we should be heating from the environment, both through radiation and conduction, but instead we still lose the 100-200W we generate.

Incidentally, we're almost all black in the IR (the emissivity is about 0.98 to long wavelength infrared).

Oh, and if you want an answer, simply plug in the numbers to:

[itex]P = A \sigma_{SB} (T_{skin}^4 - T_{environment}^4)[/itex]

where A is the effective surface area (about 1 square meter). It is not the nominal 2 because some of the skin faces other parts of the skin and cannot efficiently radiate). [itex]\sigma_{SB}[/itex] is the Stefan-Boltzmann constant. The first term is the energy radiated to the environment while the second is the energy radiated by the environment back to the skin. This assumes a black body. (otherwise, the whole thing would have been multiplied by the emissivity).

– NJS
(http://www.sciencebits.com" )
 
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