05-28-2003, 10:13 PM
Hi,
Heat is a form of energy. For the human body to generate heat, it has to burn fuel. The human body does not turn that fuel into heat with any real efficiency. Thus it is more efficient to just burn the fuel than to feed it to someone is what you want is heat.
Also there is the fact that the heat is only one aspect of the situation. The maximum thermodynamic efficiency of any heat engine is related to the ratio of the temperatures of its hot and cold reservoirs. So, a hotter running engine has a higher potential efficiency than a cool one. BY comparison to the temperature available if the fuel is burned directly, the human body is pretty cold. Heat flows from high temperature to low. To pump heat from low temperature to high takes energy. So this adds to the inefficiency of the process.
Nope. That bit of the movie is pure hokum. Humans are of no use as a heat source, they are of no use as an electrical source and are hardly of any value as a computing source. However, the movie needed some reason for the machines not to have wiped out the humans. They chose a poor one. Much better, IMO, would be to go philosophical:
The machines are, by their design, servants. A servant needs a master. The machines created the matrix because they thought they knew better than the humans what the humans need. That's why they created an ideal world the first time, which of course drove everyone crazy . . . They aren't doing this because they hate humans but because they *know better* -- the ultimate tyranny of the eternal parent.
Much better background than "copper top". Had this been a written work, I'd be much more disappointed. But since I don't expect much from movie makers, I cut them some slack on this point :)
--Pete
Heat is a form of energy. For the human body to generate heat, it has to burn fuel. The human body does not turn that fuel into heat with any real efficiency. Thus it is more efficient to just burn the fuel than to feed it to someone is what you want is heat.
Also there is the fact that the heat is only one aspect of the situation. The maximum thermodynamic efficiency of any heat engine is related to the ratio of the temperatures of its hot and cold reservoirs. So, a hotter running engine has a higher potential efficiency than a cool one. BY comparison to the temperature available if the fuel is burned directly, the human body is pretty cold. Heat flows from high temperature to low. To pump heat from low temperature to high takes energy. So this adds to the inefficiency of the process.
Nope. That bit of the movie is pure hokum. Humans are of no use as a heat source, they are of no use as an electrical source and are hardly of any value as a computing source. However, the movie needed some reason for the machines not to have wiped out the humans. They chose a poor one. Much better, IMO, would be to go philosophical:
The machines are, by their design, servants. A servant needs a master. The machines created the matrix because they thought they knew better than the humans what the humans need. That's why they created an ideal world the first time, which of course drove everyone crazy . . . They aren't doing this because they hate humans but because they *know better* -- the ultimate tyranny of the eternal parent.
Much better background than "copper top". Had this been a written work, I'd be much more disappointed. But since I don't expect much from movie makers, I cut them some slack on this point :)
--Pete
How big was the aquarium in Noah's ark?