Is Spontaneous Human Combustion just a myth?
924793
Yes ... but based on a misunderstanding of circumstances.  A lot of the early victims were obese alcoholics who fell asleep either smoking, or next to a fire, or both, and inadvertantly set themselves on fire.  The fire burned hot (the victim being obese and full of liquor), but often the chair or floor weren't --- not due to anything supernatural, just the materials:  hardwood floors and chair coverings with a high combustion temperature.  If the fumes coming from the alcoholic were ignited by the fire in the fireplace, and they were close enough to it, it might jump across without burning the floor, leading investigators to think the victim burned from within (as fire followed the fumes of alcohol back into the victim).  Just a thought.
915265
That's A way of looking at it, but it's not technically accurate.  \n\nAn explosion (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explosion ) is really two things, a rapid increase in volume and energy, followed by dispersion of the overpressure, heat, and ejecta.\n\nNote that turning on a gas burner can be consided to be an explosion, although it's more detailed description is a deflagration (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deflagration ), while the more common connotation is a detonation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detonation ), wherein the pressure waves are supersonic.\n\nThe second part is the dispersion, which can be modeled with Fick's Law (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fick%27s_law ).
747557
A reaction tends to be spontaneous if  it causes an increase in the entropy of the system, and/or a decrease in the enthalpy of the system \n\nBoth reactions are endothermic (increase in enthalpy) becuase of positive delta H values.\nBoth have an increase in entropy (positive delta S value for the first one, production of a gas for the second)\n\nSo I'd say statements ll and lll are true.
1040931
being partially methane, yes. however the concentration of methane is low enough on average that actually making it burn is at best a difficult task.
1146718
OH CAN IT EVER. It's call blue-flaming or torqing. You lay on you back and throw your legs back over your head as far as you can. Hold a lighter (not a match) near the butt-opening. If you get too close you create some risk. Build up a doozy and let 'er rip while the lighter is going. You have to exhaust the whole thing, or else you risk bringing some of the fire back inside of you while your butt-opening is still, well, open. So push it all out. Some of the flames can get huge. Just watch out for the "banana torq". It wraps around and burns bad things.
1141761
Apparently, they don't combust spontaneously. They just, sort of, smolder to ashes. \n\nThey're usually unconscious people whose clothing catches fire from a nearby heat source and then the fats in their bodies smolder until there's not much left of them.
437369
spontaneous human combustion\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spontaneous_human_combustion
349740
Yes the electricity sparks can cause an explosion. I read about that a long time ago.
848352
no firefighter here, just someone who always watches the reality justice shows, like forensic files, american justice, new detectives, etc., and consistently, arson is suspected when the burn patterns are observed.  if an accelerant is used, there's a more vivid "starting point" for the blaze, which goes out in a very definite direction.  if it were just a cigarette or unattended campfire, they could tell that too.  if gasoline or some other accelerant were used, that substance is usually soaked into the surrounding materials, such as dirt, trees, walls in houses, floor boards, etc., prior to ignition and cannot be covered up.  hope this helped!!  just don't go out now and commit arson!!
359525
Take a look at the pyrotechnics chapter of this side.\n\nhttp://www.vk2zay.net/\n\nCareful: it is neither simple nor without danger.
252852
no , they tested that on mythbusters and proved it wrong. One person has survived a elevator crashing down 30 stories in a fire, and that person said it was because he had jumped in the elevator. That is where the rumor started.\n\nMythbusters showed that this women actually survoved because the air under the falling elevator acted as a cushion and the snapped cable under it acted as a coil. So to answer your question, NO
436492
I think it is the random dancing and constant movement of the flames. The constant movement has a calming and almost hypnotic effect on people ...
1032141
It has happened and far to often.  I read a story about a young father taking his two year old son to day care on his way to work because his wife was sick and the stress of the day he forgot to drop him at the daycare and left him asleep in the back of his car when he got to work.  The baby wasn't discover be for being dead for two hours.  The daycare tried to call the mother at home but she had taken the phone off the hook so she could rest and the father's work number was not listed with the daycare center.I think your concern is well placed and I believe there could be many ways to alert the drive of a child or animal left in the car.\n\nGeneral Motors Develops Device To Prevent Heat Stroke in Car Occupants.\n\nCOPYRIGHT 2001 The Washington Times \n\nByline: Tom Ramstack \n\nApr. 27--General Motors Corp. announced yesterday it is developing a radar technology to prevent heat stroke in children and animals left in automobiles on hot days. \n\nThe radar detects the presence of people or animals by their normal movements, such as eyelids blinking, mouths moving or chests inhaling and exhaling. A second device monitors temperature inside the vehicles. \n\nWhen the temperature rises too high while children or animals are inside, the device sounds three short blasts, or "chirps," of the automobile horn. \n\n"We have many parents who are unaware how quickly a vehicle heats up," said...
96950
Forensics have traced 99% of the cases, to accidental burning, from cigarettes to gas range, etc., and then the fat on the human body ignites after the person loses consciousness, but then the fire goes out before anything else burns...
493620
Spontaneous human combustion (SHC) is the alleged process of a human body catching fire as a result of heat generated by internal chemical or nuclear action. While no one has ever witnessed SHC, several deaths involving fire have been attributed to SHC by investigators and storytellers
1149787
I would have to know more. Fire is a scary thing. A few years ago I had to help my cousin get her horses out where she was in California. We had to paint phone numbers on the horses in case of separation. It came one block up to her house. The smoke was unreal. \n I would hate to see anything burn.\n And yes I have heard of one serious fire that we had. I would hope we didn't sacrifice one for the other. But I need to know more to say this was a bad thing.
922012
No. It's a myth, started in the 70s\n\nhttp://www.prb.org/Template.cfm?Section=PRB&template=/Content/ContentGroups/02_Articles/0ct-Dec02/How_Many_People_Have_Ever_Lived_on_Earth_.htm