Heat

In the film Return of the Jedi (1983) , Han Solo who was previously frozen into carbonite is freed by Princess Leah who is in disguise.

How much energy does it take to thaw Han Solo?
solution:  Let’s assume Han Solo has a mass of 180kg.  Carbonite is apparently a form of frozen carbon dioxide which has a melting point of -56.6ÂșC.  Human body temperature is 37ÂșC so Han’s body temperature has to be raised ΔT=(37 – -56.6) = 93.6ÂșC. You can tell Han Solo is very cold from his shaking so he might not be all the way to 37ÂșC; however, he must be very close Since the human body is mostly water we can just pretend a person is water, but at temperatures below 0ÂșC water is frozen as ice.  So to calculate the heat needed for this temperature change we need the specific heat of water, cw = 4186 J/kgÂșC, the specific heat of ice, ci = 2093 J/kgÂșC, and the latent heat of fusion for water, Lf = 333 kJ/kg. Given these facts we can write the heat energy as:

Q = m ( c_i \Delta T_i + c_w \Delta T_w + L_f)

= 180 ( 2093(56.6) + 4186 (37) + 333,000) = 606.3kJ

which is a whole lot of energy. In terms of kinetic energy it would be equivalent of changing Han Solo’s velocity by about 82m/s or raising his elevation on Earth by 773 meters.