• Question: what is the highest temperature a human can withstand before it becomes increasingly dangerous?? if possible i would like an answer for both males and females (as i presume the reasults to be different) thankyou ;)

    Asked by feather to David, Helen, Ian, rhysphillips, Sarah on 24 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Ian van der Linde

      Ian van der Linde answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      The temperature that humans can withstand doesn’t depend so much on their gender, but on their age, what they’re used to, and perhaps even what sort of climate their ancestors were from. When we have a heatwave in England, the people who are taken ill tend to be the elderley. People from some countries are better adapted to high temperatures than others. Just as people who live at high altitudes have been shown to be especially adapted to deal with the thinner air (like the Nepalese Sherpas), there will have been “selection pressure” in very hot countries so that people who didn’t deal with the heat very well (or died) would not have survived to pass on their genes to the next generation by having children.

    • Photo: Rhys Phillips

      Rhys Phillips answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      It depends on both the person and the other conditions such as humidity – the more humid, the lower temperature you can withstand. I doubt that being male or female makes much difference!

    • Photo: Helen Fletcher

      Helen Fletcher answered on 24 Jun 2011:

      In terms of people’s body temperature, I think people have survived fevers of around 41 degrees Celcius (your normal body temperature should be about 37 degrees C). However, this can cause brain damage because your brain will start to shut down.

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