Assuming the person is not wearing any sort of special suit or covering, but is dressed in normal clothing.
I’m not really sure how long they would be subjected to this though. Just long enough to not kill them I guess.
Just to clarify-I’m asking about external temperatures, not the internal body temperature.
SLASH - that is uncanny. We must both have been thinking the same thing:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=181943
I’ve walked around the dunes outside Yuma AZ when the temp was a verified 126. It becomes very surreal after about a half an hour and one must either drink drink drink, or get in the AC very quickly.
What I mean by surreal, is things take on a fuzzy, almost technicolor appearance and you start behaving slightly erratically.
Plus, I drank around two quarts of water, and sweat almost that amount out. I don’t recommend it !
I think you’re going to have to specify “for how long.” People survive in saunas at impressive temperatures for at least several minutes.
This won’t be very helpful because all I have are fuzzy memories but…I read a manuscript once about scientists who use themselves for experimental subjects. Two scientists in, I think, the 18th century, set out to test this very question, by sitting in an increasingly hot room to see what happened to them. I remember they were amazed by how hot a temperature they could endure, but I don’t remember when they stopped. Does anyone know about this experiment?
I’ve personally been in saunas that reached 220 degrees, and I’m sure many have seen even hotter. But that was for only 20 minutes or so. Do you mean for a sustained amount of time? Probably around 300 degrees things must get pretty tough, once your body can’t sufficiently cool itself. Somewhere around 108 degrees (internal body temp) and you’re done for.
The Finnish sauna society recommends heating the sauna to 80-90°C (176-194°F) but does also note that some people let their saunas exceed 100°C.
This goes to say that as long as we have access to fluid we can take pretty much anything nature can throw at us.
http://www.engineer.ucla.edu/history/heat.html is a page on Air Force experiments during the 1940’s and 50’s, concerning human tolerance to high temperatures.