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Myth: Candle floating over dead body

stup_id

Critical Thinker
S
Joined
Jun 13, 2005
Messages
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Hello my friends.. it's been a long time since I posted here, but today I heard some story, (even better a university homework) which sound like bogus to me... the task is to give a scientific explanation of this supposedly real phenomena:

If a body dies under water, and get's trapped there, meaning it can't float, it is said that if is in for example a quiet lagoon, and you put a canlde over a disposable dish the candle and the dish will float straight above the decomposing body...

I repeat it sounds as an urban legend to me... but i'd be glad if you could help me
 
I think this is a circumstance where the burden of proof would fall on whoever claims that it is real. If they can present an actual documented case of it happening that is one thing, but a vague claim with no evidence, and which seems unusual is usually false.

Bodies are commonly found underwater, usually the method for searching involves divers. But I've never heard of usuing a candle. If it were a true phenomena, it would save many police departments and other agencies a lot of work and money.

-Steve
 
Alright. I looked on Google with stuff like Corpse, Candle, Float, Underwater, "Dead Body, " Location, Locate, Find

Anyways...didn't see anything about that effect. So either it doesn't exist, it's not very well known or the government is covering it up and has gone to the Google headquarters in their black helicopters to delete it from all the servers.


Best explaination why it might work: The candle will follow any currents in the body of water. If there is some sort of underwater cavern into which the water is flowing, or if there is some area near a stream, then the body is likely to get stuck in such an area.

Of course, this will only work in a body of water with some sort of current, a topography that prevents the body (and candle) from floating away, and it assumes that the surface and underwater currents are basically the same, which is not always the case.

But in some circumstances, it may work.

-Steve
 
DRBUZZ0 said:
Bodies are commonly found underwater, usually the method for searching involves divers. But I've never heard of usuing a candle. If it were a true phenomena, it would save many police departments and other agencies a lot of work and money.

-Steve
Click to expand...

Any reader of Tom Sawyer would know the proper way to find bodies underwater is to take loaves of bread, fill them with quicksilver and float them on the water. They'll go right to the body, then you fire a cannon at that spot to bring the body to the surface.

Jeez, what are they teaching in school these days.
 
Fill them with quicksilver? As in mercury?


I see...that you don't have to find the body yourself. The EPA will do it for you during the massive cleanup process.
 
I've heard the term "corpse candles" used for the sort of will-o-the-wisp lights sometimes reported from marshy areas and supposed to be caused by ignition (by lightning or fire) of methane from rotting vegetation.

No idea where the term originated.

I wonder if Stup_id's urban myth is somehow derived from this?
 
It is nonsense. Or supernatural. There is certainly nothing in the laws of physics that could explain this.

Hans
 
MMmm, strictly speaking, no.

There is such a thing as pure nonsense (read any "Kumar Thesis"[tm]), which wouldn't even work if it was supernatural.

Then there is the thesis that supernatural pnenomenon exist. While probably wrong, it is not nonsense.

Hans
 
Soapy Sam said:
I've heard the term "corpse candles" used for the sort of will-o-the-wisp lights sometimes reported from marshy areas and supposed to be caused by ignition (by lightning or fire) of methane from rotting vegetation.

No idea where the term originated.

I wonder if Stup_id's urban myth is somehow derived from this?
Click to expand...

That's what I was wondering. If I'm not mistaken, the will-o-the-wisp was supposed to be a supernatural apparition that would lead the curious to something... a dead body? A grave? Their own grisly death? I can't remember.
 
I believe that a corpse candle is a light which shows the path the funeral procession took to the grave. I've only read of this in relation to Welsh mythology.
 
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