Armstrong Limit

The Armstrong limit, often called Armstrong's line, is the altitude that produces an atmospheric pressure so low (0.0618 atmosphere or 6.3 kPa (1.9 inHg)) that water boils at the normal temperature of the human body: 37 °C (98.6 °F). It is named after Harry George Armstrong, who founded the U.S. Air Force’s Department of Space Medicine in 1947 at Randolph Field, Texas. Armstrong was the first to recognize this phenomenon, which occurs at an altitude beyond which humans absolutely cannot survive in an unpressurized environment. The altitude is variously reported as being between 18,900–19,350 meters (62-63,500 feet, or about 12 miles (10 nmi)).

Read more about Armstrong Limit:  Effect On Bodily Liquids, Hypoxia Below The Armstrong Limit, Historical Significance

Famous quotes containing the words armstrong and/or limit:

    There dwelt a man in faire Westmerland,
    Jonnë Armestrong men did him call,
    He had nither lands nor rents coming in,
    Yet he kept eight score men in his hall.
    —Unknown. Johnie Armstrong (l. 1–4)

    Today one does not hear much about him.... The fame of his likes circulates briskly but soon grows heavy and stale; and as for history it will limit his life story to the dash between two dates.
    Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)