I remember reading a book titled "COSMOS" by Carl Sagan. In the book
he talked about how a rat could live on the sun for 2 weeks. He
explained this using statistics and demonstrated the possibility that
this could occur. Obviously this is not particle, but I was wondering
if you could validate / prove this for me?

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Request for Question Clarification by knowledge_seeker-ga on 04 Nov 2002 09:12 PST

Hi leeloo, 

Well, because of your question, I enjoyed a brief re-read of Carl
Sagan's "Cosmos" this morning over coffee, and guess what ... he makes
no mention, anywhere in the book, of rats living on the sun. Nothing
even close. He talks a great deal about the possibility and likelihood
of life in other galaxies, discusses the environment on other planets,
but nowhere makes mention (even as a mathematical or statistical
exercise) of anything living on the sun or a star.

So, that leaves us with a dilemma -- Where you read it. It really
won't help researchers for you to say, "Maybe it was another Carl
Sagan book." The man was prolific and it would take a great deal of
time to go through all of his books. Well beyond the scope of a $2
question. So, perhaps you can try to narrow it down for us -- remember
where or when you read it.

Thanks - K~

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Clarification of Question by leeloo-ga on 04 Nov 2002 12:40 PST

I thought it was COSMOS, i guess i was wrong.

What the heck is wrong with you?  How could a rat live on a surface
the temperature of 27,000,000° F???

It's an exercise in mathematics, not in physical actualities! It's
like those equations that go for ages and ages and the result is
something like '1 = 0'. I can't wait to see the proof!

I'm pretty sure Sagan postulated, but did not prove, that *if* the
rats wrapped their feet in wet towels before disembarking from their
spaceship they would be able to survive a *maximum* of two weeks.
However, he acknowledged there were too many assumptions in this model
(such as assuming the mice wouldn't get thirsty) for it to hold up to
investigation.

There's a rat near me whose best friend is a cat, seriously. It uses
the cat as a pillow.