# Would a metal object 'transported' from outerspace directly in your room, freeze you? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 21, 2009, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-metal-object-transported-from-outerspace-directly-in-your-room-freeze-you/503696 "2009-07-21T01:00:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2009, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-metal-object-transported-from-outerspace-directly-in-your-room-freeze-you/503696/21 "2009-07-21T17:51:09Z")
Right. Stick your hand in a 400 degree oven for a second and it feels hot, but no big deal. Touch the 400 degree steel oven rack and YEEEEEEAAAAAaaaAAAgHHHH! ---
**Author:** ![Baal\_Houtham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baal_houtham/32/13604_2.png) [@Baal\_Houtham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baal_Houtham)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2009, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-metal-object-transported-from-outerspace-directly-in-your-room-freeze-you/503696/22 "2009-07-21T18:00:08Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > A fireplace or wood stove can get a fair bit hotter than that. Even just a standard kitchen oven can get up to about 500 F, and you could briefly reach your unprotected hand into the heart of your oven without harm, as long as you didn’t touch anything. True. I remember melting lead in an outdoor garbage drum, back in the days of rural trash burning. When I proposed that it would be more oppressive than a wood burning stove, I was thinking that the surface area of a hot 500 Kg robot (or similar iron mass) would be substantially greater than the surface area of an iron stove. But it probably wouldn’t be enough larger to compensate for the higher core temperature of the stove. ---
**Author:** ![EdwardLost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bbe5ce/32.png) [@EdwardLost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EdwardLost)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2009, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-metal-object-transported-from-outerspace-directly-in-your-room-freeze-you/503696/23 "2009-07-21T18:06:58Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > True, there’s not actually any “cold radiating from the walls to me”, but it’d feel an awful lot like that… This is a good description. They would definitely feel a “chill” from Nomad as they walked around it. This would be the lack of radiation that they would have otherwise felt from the walls behind it. Nomad would quickly ice up as water condensed onto it from the air. The ice layer would build up until an equilibrium was reached, with the surface of the layer at zero Celsius. Then the ice layer would slowly melt away until the metal was exposed again. Nomad would then continue warming from zero Celsius up to room temperature. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2009, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-metal-object-transported-from-outerspace-directly-in-your-room-freeze-you/503696/24 "2009-07-21T19:17:50Z")
> [@EdwardLost](#): > > This is a good description. They would definitely feel a “chill” from Nomad as they walked around it. This would be the lack of radiation that they would have otherwise felt from the walls behind it. I think Kirk would be feeling the cold air far more than the lack of radiation. Remember, the lack of radiation from a cold object is not equivalent to the radiation from a hot object. Radiation goes up dramatically with heat (as the fourth power of temperature), so if you’re next to a hot stove on one side, and a cold Nomad on the other (and a skin-temp room everywhere else), you’re going to be getting a lot of radiant heat from the stove, but losing much less radiant heat to Nomad. (If your skin temperature is halfway between Nomad and the stove, you’ll be getting 16 times as much radiant heat from the stove as you’re giving to Nomad). In this case, you’ll feel direct heat on the stove side, but only chill drafts of air on the Nomad side. [QUOTE=EdwardLost] Nomad would quickly ice up as water condensed onto it from the air. The ice layer would build up until an equilibrium was reached, with the surface of the layer at zero Celsius. Then the ice layer would slowly melt away until the metal was exposed again. Nomad would then continue warming from zero Celsius up to room temperature. [/QUOTE] Excellent point. The Enterprise life-support probably keeps the air on the dry side, but there would still be lots of condensation. I’m not sure it would reach the point of an ice layer, as opposed to beads of water and ice, though. ---
**Author:** ![EdwardLost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bbe5ce/32.png) [@EdwardLost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EdwardLost)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2009, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-metal-object-transported-from-outerspace-directly-in-your-room-freeze-you/503696/25 "2009-07-21T23:03:43Z")
> [@Quercus](#): > > I think Kirk would be feeling the cold air far more than the lack of radiation. Remember, the lack of radiation from a cold object is not equivalent to the radiation from a hot object. Radiation goes up dramatically with heat (as the fourth power of temperature), so if you’re next to a hot stove on one side, and a cold Nomad on the other (and a skin-temp room everywhere else), you’re going to be getting a lot of radiant heat from the stove, but losing much less radiant heat to Nomad. (If your skin temperature is halfway between Nomad and the stove, you’ll be getting 16 times as much radiant heat from the stove as you’re giving to Nomad). In this case, you’ll feel direct heat on the stove side, but only chill drafts of air on the Nomad side. It’s true: a hot stove would radiate more heat than a section of room-temperature wall of equal area. It’s also true that Nomad would be chilling the air, and the cool air would waft around the room. But even if, somehow, Kirk couldn’t feel the cool air he would still be able to feel a cooling on his skin in the direction of Nomad because of its lack of radiant heat. I don’t know if Nomad would gain heat faster from air convection or from radiation off Kirk and the walls; I suspect the latter. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2009, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-metal-object-transported-from-outerspace-directly-in-your-room-freeze-you/503696/26 "2009-07-22T00:27:59Z")
> [@WarmNPrickly](#): > > I never saw the episode, but if Nomad is in deep space, then presumably it is in some kind of sleep mode. It may not generate any more heat than a cell phone. Nomad has just gotten done eliminating the Malurian race, 4 billion strong. I don’t think it did that in sleep mode. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2009, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-metal-object-transported-from-outerspace-directly-in-your-room-freeze-you/503696/27 "2009-07-22T17:09:32Z")
> [@EdwardLost](#): > > It’s true: a hot stove would radiate more heat than a section of room-temperature wall of equal area. It’s also true that Nomad would be chilling the air, and the cool air would waft around the room. But even if, somehow, Kirk couldn’t feel the cool air he would still be able to feel a cooling on his skin in the direction of Nomad because of its lack of radiant heat. I don’t know if Nomad would gain heat faster from air convection or from radiation off Kirk and the walls; I suspect the latter. Radiation is usually pretty minimal as far as heat transfer goes. Even at oven temperatures, its amazing how much of a difference convection makes in cooking times. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2009, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-metal-object-transported-from-outerspace-directly-in-your-room-freeze-you/503696/28 "2009-07-22T17:55:01Z")
> [@ghardester](#): > > Like having your head in the oven and your ass in the freezer. By the way, I highly recommend this as a form of physical therapy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-metal-object-transported-from-outerspace-directly-in-your-room-freeze-you/503696.md?page=1)