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:
“rather then men shall say we were hange’d,
Let them report how we were slaine.’”
—Unknown. Johnie Armstrong (l. 51–52)
“... there are two types of happiness and I have chosen that of the murderers. For I am happy. There was a time when I thought I had reached the limit of distress. Beyond that limit, there is a sterile and magnificent happiness.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)