Chapter 12, Problem 43P

Alligators and other reptiles don’t use enough metabolic energy to keep their body temperatures constant. They cool off at night and must warm up in the sun in the morning. Suppose a 300 kg alligator with an early-morning body temperature of 25°C is absorbing radiation from the sun at a rate of 1200 W. How long will the alligator need to warm up to a more favorable 30°C? (Assume that the specific heat of the reptilian body is the same as that of the mammalian body.)