Everything Can Kill You

[russ_watters]

This thread is motivated by this thread: http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=515565

We have a lot of discussion in this forum about things that might kill you (cell phones are popular right now). To help illustrate the fallacy for the thread above, this thread is dedicated to finding out if there is anything that can't kill you. Because as we all know, everything from knives to iPods to TV to cute little kittens can kill you (and as every cat owner knows, kittens will kill you on purpose!) My position is that everything can kill you. So hit me: try to find something that can't kill you.

Rules: "Things" means physical objects. I don't want to get into a pseudophilosophical argument about whether or not "love" or "music" can kill you.

So have at it!

[Newai]

Gelatin nailed to a tree?

[Evo]

I can't think of anything that can't kill you.

[Evo]

Gelatin nailed to a tree?What if you try to eat it and choke to death on it?

[Newai]

Then it wouldn't be nailed to a tree.

[Evo]

Some people claim that smelling underarm deodorant will kill them from yards away.

Of course there is no evidence that a "smell" can do you any harm. There would actually be a need for a certain amount of a substance to enter your bloodstream. Anything else is imaginary, there is no scientific support for it. Of course imaginary fears can kill people.

[russ_watters]

Gelatin nailed to a tree? You can't nail gelatin to a tree. Again, no psuedophilosophical arguments about whether imaginary things can kill you.

Caveat: Trying to nail gelatin to a tree could cause puncture wounds and tetanus, both of which can kill you.

[wisvuze]

any physical object can kill you, amass enough of it and you can suffocate on it

[S_Happens]

Some things you'd certainly have to get creative with.

I wonder if anyone has ever choked on a lifesaver candy. Barring making it a projectile, I can't come up with anything. I'm not familiar enough with diabetes (or lifesavers actually) to know if that small candy could cause a problem.

I've got a lot of spare cardboard pieces/small boxes from recent packages. There's not enough to crush or suffocate anyone. Maybe if one of the pieces made it's way to a tiled area like the kitchen it could pose a slipping hazard...

[Pengwuino]

Love can kill you, ever so slowly.

Peanut butter can't kill you. It is absolutely perfect in every way and the only side effect from large consumption is extreme happiness.

I win.

[rootX]

Cats can kill you

[KrisOhn]

Peanut butter can't kill you. It is absolutely perfect in every way and the only side effect from large consumption is extreme happiness.


I just tested this, results were conclusive with Pengwuino's argument. The paper will be published in the next issue of Nature.:approve:

[chiro]

One of the fundamental notions in toxicology is that its the amount of whatever that can kill you (i.e. the dose). Even water fits into this category.

[disregardthat]

As we know, what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger, so we can reduce this search to what actually makes you stronger. Since we are talking about physical objects, we can always lift them to increase muscle strength, and that would make us stronger.

Conclusion: nothing can kill you, only make you stronger. This amazing feat of logic will put an end to the crazy claims of crazy scientists.

[Oldfart]

A puff of argon, blown on my left foot.

[Math Is Hard]

Peanut butter can't kill you. It is absolutely perfect in every way and the only side effect from large consumption is extreme happiness.



Too risky.

http://www.slashfood.com/2011/04/25/is-your-peanut-butter-carcinogenic/

[Ivan Seeking]

A puff of argon, blown on my left foot.

Neutrino flux.

[Proton Soup]

well, i'd sort of agree with minute outgassing from random products, but then you run into something like a toxic FEMA trailer, and suddenly being locked up fairly tight in an aluminum can with formaldehyde and whatnot from insulation and such... and you've got a problem.

i suspect that guy would maybe get some peace of mind from a simple activated charcoal air filter. it's a good general purpose adsorbent for small molecules. that is, assuming he's in a goldfish bowl and not some drafty shack.

now, my diet mt dew is chock full of benzoates and brominated veggie oil. but still, we love mt dew...

dmCh_0AsEyk

[mege]

A life-support chamber?

[Redbelly98]

Gelatin nailed to a tree?

A puff of argon, blown on my left foot.

Hey, you only get to name the object, not specify it's manner of confinement or the means by which you come into contact with it. Otherwise "vial of poison, locked away in a vault where it can never touch me" would qualify.

[jobyts]

Schrödinger's cat may not be able to kill you?

[Jimmy Snyder]

Guns and knives couldn't kill me. I'm already dead from my cell phone.

[russ_watters]

A puff of argon, blown on my left foot. Trip over the hose and fall and hit your head.

[Jimmy Snyder]

Trip over the hose and fall and hit your head.
The puff didn't kill, the hose did.

Hey, you only get to name the object, not specify it's manner of confinement or the means by which you come into contact with it. Otherwise "vial of poison, locked away in a vault where it can never touch me" would qualify.
And a ton of any substance would kill you if it fell on you. What's the point of the thread again?

[russ_watters]

And a ton of any substance would kill you if it fell on you. A ton of water can kill you, but it won't necessarily kill you if dropped on you. What's the point of the thread again? About once a week someone comes here with a fear about something ridiculously unlikely to kill you and I'm trying to illustrate the absurdity of such fears by demonstrating that if you fear one such thing, you pretty much have to fear everything. So I opened this thread as a companion to that one.

[Jimmy Snyder]

Sounds to me like the point is to pick a noun, whatever occupies your mind all of the time, and claim that it can't kill you. Like sex can't kill you. Then sit around and wait until someone else writes, Oh yeah, what if a ton of it fell on you? Death, where is thy sting? We have a rule against locking the stuff away in a vault. Why not another rule against using a ton of the stuff?

[Pengwuino]

Sounds to me like the point is to pick a noun, whatever occupies your mind all of the time, and claim that it can't kill you. Like sex can't kill you. Then sit around and wait until someone else writes, Oh yeah, what if a ton of it fell on you? Death, where is thy sting? We have a rule against locking the stuff away in a vault. Why not another rule against using a ton of the stuff?

I would like a ton of sex to fall onto me.

[daveb]

Neutrino flux.

Damn! Beat me to it!

[Chi Meson]

Schrödinger's cat may not be able to kill you?

Well, yes and no...



(OK, we were all waiting for that, admit it.)

[BobG]

I don't think you can kill someone with bullets made of ice. Or bullets made of the victim's frozen blood, for that matter.

[Galteeth]

I don't think you can kill someone with bullets made of ice. Or bullets made of the victim's frozen blood, for that matter.

If you dropped a 10 gallon bucket full on somebody's head?

[Galteeth]

But small enough things, like a single hydrogen atom can't kill you...


OR CAN THEY?????!!???

[fluidistic]

Actually nothing can kill you. Think about a deep space or create a vacuum room on Earth. Enter in it, you'll eventually die by... nothing.

[Jimmy Snyder]

Actually nothing can kill you. Think about a deep space or create a vacuum room on Earth. Enter in it, you'll eventually die by... nothing.
It could kill you if you eat it.

[Evo]

I found out last night that floors can kill you.

[rootX]

To make it more interesting I think people must backup their claims with evidences.

[BobG]

Norman Bates's mother. She couldn't even kill a fly!

It's sad, when a mother has to speak the words that condemn her own son. But I couldn't allow them to believe that I would commit murder. They'll put him away now, as I should have years ago. He was always bad, and in the end he intended to tell them I killed those girls and that man... as if I could do anything but just sit and stare, like one of his stuffed birds. They know I can't move a finger, and I won't. I'll just sit here and be quiet, just in case they do... suspect me. They're probably watching me. Well, let them. Let them see what kind of a person I am. I'm not even going to swat that fly. I hope they are watching... they'll see. They'll see and they'll know, and they'll say, "Why, she wouldn't even harm a fly..."

[jobyts]

Since we do not have much idea about what's happening inside a black hole, I'm not sure if a black hole could kill me if I get into one of them.

But as JimmySnyder pointed out, I could die for sure by eating a black hole, by hunger or malnutrition. The black hole would suck up all the nutrients that I eat.

[rhody]

I found out last night that floors can kill you.

Hey, that's not funny, coming from anyone else but you, it would be. Are you alright ?

Rhody... :eek:

[Evo]

Hey, that's not funny, coming from anyone else but you, it would be. Are you alright ?

Rhody... :eek:Now I found that I have pain in the middle of my spine. Im fine, I just whacked a lot of places pretty hard.

[rhody]

Now I found that I have pain in the middle of my spine. Im fine, I just whacked a lot of places pretty hard.
I know. I just found your post in the, "The Why Thread", I fell down last night and injured my tail bone and have a huge swollen area on my left leg just below the hip joint. It looks broken, but I'm not getting that searing pain you get from a break. I need more cushions in order to sit.
When you say, "it looks broken", what do you mean, your tailbone (http://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&hl=en&source=hp&biw=1016&bih=570&q=tailbone+fracture&gbv=2&oq=tailbone&aq=3&aqi=g10&aql=&gs_sm=c&gs_upl=1188l7281l0l14468l16l15l2l2l1l0l328l2189l0. 4.5.1l10&safe=active) ?

Rhody... :confused:

[Evo]

I know. I just found your post in the, "The Why Thread",
When you say, "it looks broken", what do you mean, your tailbone (http://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&hl=en&source=hp&biw=1016&bih=570&q=tailbone+fracture&gbv=2&oq=tailbone&aq=3&aqi=g10&aql=&gs_sm=c&gs_upl=1188l7281l0l14468l16l15l2l2l1l0l328l2189l0. 4.5.1l10&safe=active) ?

Rhody... :confused:My leg near the hip joint looks broken due to the odd swelling, but it is not as painful as the many broken bones I've had, so probably a lot of blood accumulated in that spot.

If I feel worse tomorrow, I'll go to the doctor, but so far today, aside from finding more places that are injured, the actual pain is not worse.

It hurts to even blow my nose, and the pain is not in my nose. I'll let you guess about that one. :tongue2:

[fuzzyfelt]

I hope you are saying that although it looks broken, it doesn't seem to be. I hope you're ok. And Ouch!!

[Proton Soup]

My leg near the hip joint looks broken due to the odd swelling, but it is not as painful as the many broken bones I've had, so probably a lot of blood accumulated in that spot.

If I feel worse tomorrow, I'll go to the doctor, but so far today, aside from finding more places that are injured, the actual pain is not worse.

It hurts to even blow my nose, and the pain is not in my nose. I'll let you guess about that one. :tongue2:

careful, if you have a hip fracture, it could cause a lot of blood loss.

[Dembadon]

One milliliter of water, assuming nothing's been added to it, shouldn't be able to kill someone.

Edit:

A grain of sand
A molecule
A ladybug
A hair from an ant's abdomen
A cat's whisker

I think there exist many sufficiently small things that can't kill people.

[nucleargirl]

a smile!

[nucleargirl]

actually, smiling at the wrong sort of people could kill you...

[S_Happens]

One milliliter of water, assuming nothing's been added to it, shouldn't be able to kill someone.

A laryngospasm can occur from very small amount of water producing death by Dry drowning (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_drowning). Whether or not 1 milliliter would be enough is tough to say.

[Dembadon]

A laryngospasm can occur from very small amount of water producing death by Dry drowning (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_drowning). Whether or not 1 milliliter would be enough is tough to say.

Excellent find! I just learned something new, thank you! :approve:

[Newai]

To make it more interesting I think people must backup their claims with evidences.

How could that be possible? It's not like everything has killed someone.

[lisab]

Some ideas are deadly.

[Jimmy Snyder]

To make it more interesting I think people must backup their claims with evidences.
This I set out to do, but so far no go. I thought that a feather couldn't kill anyone, but that turned out to be wrong. Then I tried a marshmallow. Unfortunately, it turns out that it can. A leaf, a sticky-note, a flower. I'm afraid I have to stop for the time being until I can tidy up here and then it's back to work.

[Ivan Seeking]

The point seems clear: Assume everything is dangerous until long-term data is available showing otherwise.

[russ_watters]

How could that be possible? It's not like everything has killed someone. No, but we can provide examples for some. Bob said ice bullets. Not sure if it's even possible for them to exist, but how 'bout ice javelins: http://alloveralbany.com/archive/2009/01/13/death-by-icicle

[Pythagorean]

The point seems clear: Assume everything is dangerous until long-term data is available showing otherwise.

well done

[256bits]

And the winner is:
Skydiving has never killed anyone.

[Newai]

And the winner is:
Skydiving has never killed anyone.

Landing is a bona fide part of skydiving, as it is part of training. And the impact with the planet can kill when deployment fails.

[Zentrails]

Nothing traveling at the speed of light can die, it can only transform.