24th April 2004, 3:48 PM
Just wanted to point out there is no REAL phenomenon of spontaneous combustion. The human body IS capable of burning to dust, including the bones, without charring much except maybe blackening a nearby TV screen. It's the wic effect. Take a large pig (which has a similar fat ratio to humans... take that as you will...) and set it ablaze. It'll take a while to get it started, but eventually it'll start a slow gradual burn. It won't be enough to catch most surrounding things on fire, but it'll torch the pig and even turn the bones to dust. All that will be left are the parts that are too low in fat to catch. In humans, those are the hands and feet, just like most cases tend to have left. Essentially, a few experiments like this one have shown a very easy explanation for it, except the time scale. It takes about 5 hours or so to complete. However, most cases really offer no proof of it being instant. No one's around during these things (because, after all, if someone catches fire like this, and someone else IS around, they will PUT THE PERSON OUT). How does the person not fight back if it takes a while? Generally, they aren't in a condition to do so. They have either seized up in cardiac arrest or something else has them medically unable to do anything. A stray cig or fallen candle is all that's needed after that. All these things make it a rare occurance, but not so rare as to make it completely improbable. These cases are rare anyway. Consider this, if it really was a concern, at least one of the time it happened someone would have seen it. The only other logical explanation is an evil wizard is teleporting around zapping people for fun.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)