Forums → WEPR → Spontaneous Human Combustion

well, i geuss you can explode if you really want to, but traditionally, they just light on fire

Oh yeah, theres no debate, people really do ignite randomly. Its only about a 1 in 3 million chance, so i can just about gaurantee no one here will, But it happens. A simple mix of bodily chemicals, friction, heat, and some flammable things are what cause it. You could spray yourself with some Insect reppelent when you're camping, and then get touched by a loose spark, and you'd be a human torch in no time. It'd take more than the usual amount of insect repellent of course, but it'd happen. There was s case of an overweight lady tripping on a lamp cord, and the light bulb broke on her back, and then she combusted. her body fat, the heat of the element and the wool of her sweater, as well as some static did it that time. It isn't so spontaneous as it is unlucky, but its real alright

Ok, i read this up, spontaneous human combustion, or SHC, is when a human is combusted without an external source, but rather an internal source. So it doesn't break the laws of physics.

So if your actually worried about this, don't have spicy food while you have a fever.

I doubt that this is likely to happen...it is rare for something organic to spontaniously combust...and Humans don't have the genetic make-up to do it...

KingRyan

Skull, what kinda source are you getting it from?

Spicy food is spicy because of things like capsaicin and the way they happen to bind to your mucosal membranes to hyperactivate the nerves that detect for heat (anterolateral system)...this is the same system that gives rise to the perception of pain. Which is in turn why eating spicy food can BUUUURRRNNNN!!!!

It's nothing to do with actually generating highly exothermic reactions like literally burning.

Once again, it's extremely unlikely for the inside conditions of a human body to ever be aerobic (oxygen filled) enough for combustion to take place...unlikely enough for me to say that it simply won't happen while you're alive. There's a reason why most of the bacteria in your gut are anaerobes.

And yes, I was under the impression we were talking strictly about non-external interventions and whacky getting lit on fire stories. I know of a few "lit farts gone horribly wrong" stories.

fire is external and your organs are Internal then it will never happen.

well if you could successfully eat a minature time bomb it could happen

hmm that would be messy. dont it in a crowd would be funny though

well if you could successfully eat a minature time bomb it could happen

To LordBob on the first page - LMAO!!!! great movie xD

spontaneous combustion isn't real. thing's don't catch fire without an ignition source... so it wouldn't be spontaneous at all....

as far as internal ignition (which is what this is really about) it could be possible by ingesting something with a flashpoint of which is lower than 98.6 degrees fahrenheit. this would cause the substance to possibly burst into flames once it warmed up INSIDE your body. of course, that would mean ingesting a chemical that would likely be VERY unstable in the natural environment (which means itd probably kill/incapacitate you before it caught fire)
of course, this has a resonable explanation and hence is NOT spontaneous.


Divine... it wouldn't be possible in space because you need oxygen to start a fire.... space.... no oxygen. oxygen rich spacesuits could catch fire from an external spark, but that doesn't quite fit SHC


to the person who posted the earlier post about a fat lady dying as her body fat caught fire... this is very possible. take a look at a candle. a flammable cloth surrounded by a wax that allows for a slower more stabile burn. think of a human wearing clothes..... see the connection? clothes catch, causing body fat and tissues to break down and melt, creating much of the same thing as a candle burning.(again, not SHC its external)

I think that if your in the sun and your radiator breaks you will combust because the heat of the sun will use the oxygen inside your organs to catch fire.

well, if you were close enough to get that hot by the sun, you would have died from radiation already... but say you could get close enough, the oxygen in your suit would be the first to go up (more exposure from outside heat) and it would still cause it to be external.

The lightside of the moon is about 250 degrees F and -250 degrees F in the shade, so to get that much closer wouldn't make you die by radiation, and the suit has about 16 layers if I recall right, thats a lot of heat to radiate through, but thats why your radiators that keep you cool break! And you combust!

after furthur research on this, i have a new thesis here... given that you are indeed close enough to get substantial heat... oxygen alone will not burn.... it will burn where it contacts your body and your suit (since fire is a chemical reaction where oxygen bonds with other elements, not with itself, it is already stable alone) so if you and the suit hit the auto-ignition temperature (you would have long since died of heat exhaustion because it is ridiculously high in some substances, manythousands of degrees(we will assume that the suit can take the temperatures without melting, and that the body can do the same)) the flames would form wherever the oxygen made contact with another compound, until it was all converted.

i really hope this makes sense... but at any rate... it would be pretty much impossible for you to fit the bounds of SHC in any situation, let alone space.

Hmmm....What about the Co2 we exhale? Before it goes through a filter?