# From fastest to slowest, absence of ... kills you **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 17, 2015, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-fastest-to-slowest-absence-of-kills-you/712950 "2015-02-17T20:55:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2015, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-fastest-to-slowest-absence-of-kills-you/712950/42 "2015-02-21T05:50:41Z")
> [@cmosdes](#): > > Imagine you step into a chamber that is exactly like where you are now only it has 1 thing completely absent. Heat or food or water or oxygen or pressure, etc. > > What will be the fastest to kill you and what would be the slowest? > > **heat** - instantaneous? > -This one is a bit tricky. If you are in a vacuum I don’t think you’d freeze immediately since you’d need to radiate the heat way. But if you were in, for example, liquid helium I would think death would be nearly instantaneous. You’re right. There are three ways to lose heat. - Conduction - Convection - Radiation Radiation is by far the slowest means to transfer heat. So, if you were in a vacuum, you’d lose heat surprisingly slowly even if the outside temperature was near absoluter zero. If I put you in a bath of liquid nitrogen things would be different. Now we are into conduction. This is a LOT faster. How fast would you die in it though? I have no idea. You’d suffer severe injury immediately but I suspect it’d take awhile for you to expire this way (although you’d probably be terminal real fast). Your outside would freeze but your core would take a lot longer to freeze…particularly since you’d be generating heat. The question though, as asked, posited an absence of things. An absence of heat, to me, is not a bath of liquid nitrogen…it is nothing (think of something like deep space…I know it is not absolute zero but near enough for this). In that case the absence of heat is the least of your worries. Heck, the Space Shuttle had more problems cooling itself than it did staying warm in space (its electronics and people heated the environment and they had to work to get rid of the heat). ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2015, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-fastest-to-slowest-absence-of-kills-you/712950/43 "2015-02-21T06:38:03Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > This would be an excellent xkcd-what if? > > If the entire chamber totally lacks heat then it is at absoute zero so the air would instantly condense and solidify. I suspect that the lack of breathable oxygen would be what killed you because as you say the consequent vacuum would insulate you before you died of cold. If you are at absolute zero, you won’t be dead or dying: you’ll be stopped. Dying will be stopped. You will resume dying when the temperature rises above absolute zero. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2015, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-fastest-to-slowest-absence-of-kills-you/712950/44 "2015-02-21T08:44:24Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > If you are at absolute zero, you won’t be dead or dying: you’ll be stopped. Dying will be stopped. > > You will resume dying when the temperature rises above absolute zero. Well what happens if you cool a Schrödinger box to absolute zero? ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2015, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-fastest-to-slowest-absence-of-kills-you/712950/45 "2015-02-21T11:55:45Z")
Lack of human contact may be the longest one ---
**Author:** ![Ignotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecc23a/32.png) [@Ignotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignotus)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2015, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-fastest-to-slowest-absence-of-kills-you/712950/46 "2015-02-21T16:06:42Z")
Absence of God is probably either the fastest or slowest one. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2015, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-fastest-to-slowest-absence-of-kills-you/712950/47 "2015-02-21T22:30:49Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Well what happens if you cool a Schrödinger box to absolute zero? You get catsicles. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-fastest-to-slowest-absence-of-kills-you/712950.md?page=2)