An adult human being at rest produces roughly 0.40mJ/h of thermal energy through metabolic activity. Use that fact to solve the following problems.
(a) A college student who weighs 128 pounds put off a major assignment until the day before it was due and worked for eight hours to complete it. If she is modeled as a closed adiabatic system at constant pressure, her heat capacity and molecular weight are approximately the same as that of liquid water, and her temperature was normal when she began to work, what would her temperature have been by the time the assignment was finished?
(b) Now model the student as an open system and assume that evaporation of perspiration (evaporative cooling) is the only mechanism for heat loss. How much weight would she have lost through evaporation if she maintained a constant body temperature?
(c) Are either of the models in Parts (a) and (b) reasonable? Explain. What is the most likely explanation of what happened to the metabolic energy produced in her body?