[ImanCarrot]

I know I asked this before, but it may have seemed like a flippant question and wasn't meant to be, but if I was to stick a hypothermia victim in a big enough induction furnace would the effect on the iron in the blood heat the core temperature and save their life?

Most research seems to state that increasing the body temperature in these cases is difficult due to cold blood flowing from the extremities back to the core causing, well, basicaly death.

Immediately attempt to rewarm the victims body core. If available, place the person in a bath of hot water at a temperature of 105 to 110 degrees. It is important that the victim's arms and legs be kept out of the water to prevent "after-drop". After-drop occurs when the cold blood from the limbs is forced back into the body resulting in further lowering of the core temperature. After-drop can be fatal.

So... if you stuck a hypothermia victim in a big eoungh induction thingy... would it heat them uniformly? if it could why isn't it used then?

(Oh I can understand NOT microwaving such cases: microwaves would heat everything in the body, probably boiling your eyeballs, but surely only heating the blood would be well, good?)

[NinerSevenTango]

Induction heating works by magnetically inducing an electrical current into a conductive material. The resistance to that current, multiplied by the square of the current, is what causes heating to take place. It's an undesirable side effect in power transmission and transformers; to get any useful effect, you need ridiculously high currents and usually, high frequencies. As particle size becomes smaller, the particles become invisible to the magnetic field, so higher frequencies are necessary. When you get to molecular particle size, you are already working in the microwave and higher frequency range anyway. In which case all heating is primarily confined close to the surface.

Particle heating in adhesives has been tried, with spotty results. Ridiculously high frequencies and power levels are necessary, and uneven heating is usually the result, with some not heating at all while other areas burn.

So no, it won't work on rust molecules in your blood. At least, not in the form generally recognized as induction heating. Microwaves work by heating water molecules, and some modified approach along those lines might work, but it's probably too dangerous. Why don't you get an industrial microwave and do testing on fresh cadavers? LOL.

Probably infrared heating through conduction is the only method the human body can withstand. Meaning, a hot bath.

--97T--

[Geof]

I know I asked this before, but it may have seemed like a flippant question and wasn't meant to be, but if I was to stick a hypothermia victim in a big enough induction furnace would the effect on the iron in the blood heat the core temperature and save their life?..

I touched on this in Post #119. The effect, as 97T points out is not on the iron in the blood but on all the conductive fluids in your system.