Human Body Vaporisation

Nearchos Stylianidis, Olorunfunmi Adefioye-Giwa, Zane Thornley

Abstract


Hypothetically, how much energy would be required to completely vaporise the human body? This would be the amount of energy that would completely dissociate the chemical bonds of the body. In this paper, we focus on the energy that would be required to dissociate the human skeleton. For simplicity, we determine this by considering only the bond energy of bonds that make up the bone mineral, calcium hydroxyapatite, assuming it makes up 100% of the bone. The energy obtained was 89.8J for a person with a mass of 78kg.

Keywords


Science fiction trope; Physics; Chemistry; Thermodynamics; Vaporisation; Power-Energy

Full Text:

PDF

References


Steven B.Heymsfield et al. (2005). Human Body Composition. 2nd ed. Champaign: Human Kinetics

University of Cambridge (2004) DoITPoMS - TLP Library Structure of bone and implant materials - Structure and composition of bone. [online] Available at: http://www.doitpoms.ac.uk/tlplib/bones/structure.php [Accessed: 18 Mar 2013].

Lodish H, Berk A, Zipursky SL, et al. Molecular Cell Biology. 4th edition. New York: W. H. Freeman; 2000. Section 2.1, Covalent Bonds. Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK21595/

Microlife (n.d.) weight scales - Microlife. [online] Available at: http://www.microlife.com/products/weightmanagement/ [Accessed: 18 Mar 2013].

NHS (2012) What should my daily intake of calories be? - Health questions - NHS Choices. [online] Available at: http://www.nhs.uk/chq/Pages/1126.aspx?CategoryID=51&SubCategoryID=165 [Accessed: 18 Mar 2013].

Burows et al, (2009). Chemistry3. New York: Oxford.

Francis A.Carey et al. (2007). Advanced Organic Chemistry Part A;Structures and Mechanisms. 5th ed. New York: Springer.

Josep L.Barona (2010). The problem of Nutrition. BRUSSELS: P.I.E PETER LANG


Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.
We use both functional and performance cookies to improve visitor experience. Continue browsing if you are happy to accept cookies. Please see our Privacy Policy for more information.
OK