When more than one medium of insulation is used, only one of them will control the rate of heat transfer, which is what truly determines whether you feel cold or not. For example a steel bar next to a piece of rubber garden hose. At ambient conditions, the steel will feel colder because it transfers the heat faster than the garden hose.
In the experiment, the suit was controlling the rate of heat transfer rather than the gas in the suit. If they were to have used a shell type of suit, that factor would be eliminated and more valuable data could be gained.
As to the subjective data, or diver's sensations, my complaint is that, even though the divers did not know which gas was in the suit, they did know that they were trying to determine whether argon is more effective than air and could be predisposed to believe that it isn't, therefore they would, knowingly or not, be inclined to not sense a difference, in which case it wouldn't matter which gas was in the suit or whether the experiment was single or double blind.
Even so, my point was simply that, due to the chemical and physical characteristics of air and argon, argon can be seen to transfer heat slower than air. A monatomic gas only moves in three dimensions. Diatomic gasses, like nitrogen and oxygen also have the spin of each atom in relation to the other to aid it in tranfsferring heat. So, Argon is chemically and physically a better insulator and no one had to have anything inserted into any bodily orifice.
Whether there is enough difference to make the added expense and possible inconvienience of trying to find a supplier of argon if your shop doesn't offer it is up to the diver.
In the experiment, the suit was controlling the rate of heat transfer rather than the gas in the suit. If they were to have used a shell type of suit, that factor would be eliminated and more valuable data could be gained.
As to the subjective data, or diver's sensations, my complaint is that, even though the divers did not know which gas was in the suit, they did know that they were trying to determine whether argon is more effective than air and could be predisposed to believe that it isn't, therefore they would, knowingly or not, be inclined to not sense a difference, in which case it wouldn't matter which gas was in the suit or whether the experiment was single or double blind.
Even so, my point was simply that, due to the chemical and physical characteristics of air and argon, argon can be seen to transfer heat slower than air. A monatomic gas only moves in three dimensions. Diatomic gasses, like nitrogen and oxygen also have the spin of each atom in relation to the other to aid it in tranfsferring heat. So, Argon is chemically and physically a better insulator and no one had to have anything inserted into any bodily orifice.
Whether there is enough difference to make the added expense and possible inconvienience of trying to find a supplier of argon if your shop doesn't offer it is up to the diver.
