Many a Slip…

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Many a Slip…

6th August 2005

Charles Stross, in "The Family Trade" (page 80)

"Miriam’s house was full of books. Right now, a dog-eared copy of The Cluetrain Manifesto lay facedown at one side of the step immediately below the landing. It was precisely as cold as the carpet it lay on, so to the night-vision goggles it was almost invisible. …the fourth [intruder] placed his right foot on it, and the effect was as dramatic as if it had been a banana skin."

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1 On August 7th, 2024, Two Dishes said:
Nice passage. Just curious, the zeroeth Law of Thermodynamics says everything should be the same temperature when no heat source is present. Is an uninhabited room really invisible in IR goggles? As a physics teacher, I’d love to play with those things.
2 On August 7th, 2024, fp said:
IR film gives you a good approximation I think. Differential absorbtion of ambient heat may create daily variations in patterns visible in the IR spectrum regardless of a radiant heat source.