How fast does the skin of the airplane cool to surrounding temperatures?
Chris W writes:
How well aluminum conducts heat has nothing to do with it.
It has a great deal to do with it, because it determines how much heat
energy must be removed or added in order to reach a given temperature
at a given point. Since aluminum conducts heat well, as soon as the
skin of the plane cools, heat from within will flow into the skin and
further cooling will occur, and just about everything made of aluminum
will become cold very quickly.
If the skin were Styrofoam, it would cool almost instantly at the very
surface, but the remaining mass of foam and whatever was behind it
would stay warm much longer.
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