Two people, one immersed in water, one in earth, both same temp. Which one succumbs to hypothermia fastest?

Question

Not as easy as it sounds, because the water may have more complete contact with the skin, but the earth is more conductive of heat.

Answer 1

True, not as easy as it seems. But, I would say the one in water succumbs faster. Water, as it is warmed by body heat, circulates away from the skin faster, taking the heat with it. Earth, even if it did conduct heat faster, does not circulate physically, thus you get no convective cooling. I would disagree that the earth is more conductive to heat. I'm thinking that earth has insulative properties, which is why earth shelter homes work to save energy and why utilities don't have to be buried very deeply in mildly cold climates. Think about this: race cars at our local track use straight water to cool their engines. From this, I would say water has excellent energy transference properties.

Answer 2

Nailpolice is close, but messed up one important detail. Water is worse at conducting heat than most types of ground. It has a very high specific heat, meaning much energy must be used to heat it. They use water to cool engines because it absorbs as much heat as it does, not because its good at conducting heat. This is also why water temperatures are almost always lower than ground temperatures; for example, pools are colder than the area outside them on the ground. Water won't heat up as fast.

If both the ground and the water were the same temperature, the water would drop a person's temperature faster mainly because its larger surface area of contact with the skin, convection currents, and water's ability to absorb as much heat as it does. The heat from the body would hardly warm the water becasue of this and it would remain cold. The ground would trap the body heat and might actually become warm instead because it requires less energy to heat and does not convect.

Answer 3

Water. The fluid dynamics move the water warmed by the body away from the body, continually allowing cooler water to become more proximate to the body, thus increasing heat loss and exchange from warmer to cooler areas.
With solid, there is no such dynamic. That is why Eskimos can survive enclosed in ice.

Answer 4

the person in earth because it is more conductive of heat.

Answer 5

in the water of course when in the water your temperature falls much faster than anywhere else