An episode of Car Talk in which a caller asked about whether starting a car is affected by wind chill prompted some thoughtful discussion. The Tappers had said that a car wouldn't be affected because cars do not feel, but that is an incomplete answer. A car sitting in a fierce wind will lose heat faster than if it were sitting in the calm cold, and the colder a car is, the more difficult, presumably, it is to start. Once the heat is lost, however, wind doesn't matter, since a stopped car does not generate heat.
Just like the proverbial tree falling in the deserted forest and making no sound, a car sitting in a cold parking lot over vacation with no one there to drive it is not cold. Pluto is not cold. And even if Pluto had an atmosphere, there would be no wind chill factor -- until we consider what it would be like for us to be on Pluto. This giving-of-a-crap is the important factor.
There are a number of failed expeditions up Mount Everest, and the human race appears not to have the ability to retrieve the bodies. They are statues in the frozen air. It seems to be part of the allure of the expedition to pass these objects knowing that you, unlike them, are still subjected to wind chill.
This is where the idea of the wind-chill factor is interesting. It is both a subjective and an objective concept. It is subjective in that it is relevant to subjects rather than objects; and it is objective in that it refers to an objective fact among those subjects, namely the danger of lost heat for the physical objects associated with those subjectivities. The metaphysical theories of idealism, materialism, and dualism are all topics to be discussed in relation to the concept of wind chill. So it's no wonder that wind-chill is confusing: it draws you into the mind-body problem.
-- Tadd Ruetenik