Gents

Firstly may I thnak you for your insightful responses and pointing out the key aspects that I had overlooked

I think we're getting close to the answer now and would like to pose one more thought.

I get the outer layer is already dead and the conduction with very cold snow is minimised with the standing position, but we still have't quite reached the final answe

The air temperature is also very cold and therefore it'tt not just direct conduction with the snow beneath that is a factory we have heat loss over the entire foot area. We also learned in the book that heat input is minimised through controlled blood supply so we mus somewhere have a signficant insulation layer

Therefore (and I use non technical terms deliberately) I think the final answer we need is ...

Does anyoner know the TOG rating of dead penguin skin cells and / or any related fatty layers :-)

Regards

Andy