Is There Anything That Can't Kill You?

  • Thread starter Thread starter russ_watters
  • Start date Start date
AI Thread Summary
The discussion centers around the provocative idea that everything can potentially kill you, with participants exploring various physical objects to challenge this notion. The original poster argues that all physical items, from everyday objects to food, can be lethal under certain circumstances, emphasizing that the quantity and context matter. Participants engage in a playful debate, suggesting examples like gelatin nailed to a tree or peanut butter, while humorously noting that even benign items can pose risks if misused. The conversation touches on the absurdity of fearing specific objects while ignoring the broader reality that almost anything can be dangerous given the right conditions. Ultimately, the thread highlights the importance of understanding risk and the often irrational nature of fears surrounding everyday items.
russ_watters
Mentor
Insights Author
Messages
23,692
Reaction score
11,131
This thread is motivated by this thread: https://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!
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Gelatin nailed to a tree?
 
I can't think of anything that can't kill you.
 
Newai said:
Gelatin nailed to a tree?
What if you try to eat it and choke to death on it?
 
Then it wouldn't be nailed to a tree.
 
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.
 
Last edited:
Newai said:
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.
 
any physical object can kill you, amass enough of it and you can suffocate on it
 
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...
 
  • #10
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.
 
  • #11
Cats can kill you
 
  • #12
Pengwuino said:
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:
 
  • #13
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.
 
  • #14
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.
 
  • #15
A puff of argon, blown on my left foot.
 
  • #17
Oldfart said:
A puff of argon, blown on my left foot.

Neutrino flux.
 
  • #18
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...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmCh_0AsEyk
 
  • #19
A life-support chamber?
 
  • #20
Newai said:
Gelatin nailed to a tree?

Oldfart said:
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.
 
  • #21
Schrödinger's cat may not be able to kill you?
 
  • #22
Guns and knives couldn't kill me. I'm already dead from my cell phone.
 
  • #23
Oldfart said:
A puff of argon, blown on my left foot.
Trip over the hose and fall and hit your head.
 
  • #24
russ_watters said:
Trip over the hose and fall and hit your head.
The puff didn't kill, the hose did.

Redbelly98 said:
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?
 
  • #25
Jimmy Snyder said:
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.
 
  • #26
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?
 
Last edited:
  • #27
Jimmy Snyder said:
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.
 
  • #28
Ivan Seeking said:
Neutrino flux.

Damn! Beat me to it!
 
  • #29
jobyts said:
Schrödinger's cat may not be able to kill you?

Well, yes and no...



(OK, we were all waiting for that, admit it.)
 
  • #30
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.
 
  • #31
BobG said:
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?
 
  • #32
But small enough things, like a single hydrogen atom can't kill you...OR CAN THEY?!?
 
  • #33
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.
 
  • #34
fluidistic said:
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.
 
  • #35
I found out last night that floors can kill you.
 
  • #36
To make it more interesting I think people must backup their claims with evidences.
 
  • #37
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..."
 
  • #38
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.
 
  • #39
Evo said:
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:
 
  • #40
rhody said:
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. I am fine, I just whacked a lot of places pretty hard.
 
  • #41
Evo said:
Now I found that I have pain in the middle of my spine. I am 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 http://www.google.com/search?tbm=is...6l15l2l2l1l0l328l2189l0.4.5.1l10&safe=active" ?

Rhody... :confused:
 
Last edited by a moderator:
  • #42
rhody said:
I know. I just found your post in the, "The Why Thread",
When you say, "it looks broken", what do you mean, your http://www.google.com/search?tbm=is...6l15l2l2l1l0l328l2189l0.4.5.1l10&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. :-p
 
Last edited by a moderator:
  • #43
I hope you are saying that although it looks broken, it doesn't seem to be. I hope you're ok. And Ouch!
 
  • #44
Evo said:
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. :-p

careful, if you have a hip fracture, it could cause a lot of blood loss.
 
  • #45
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.
 
Last edited:
  • #46
a smile!
 
  • #47
actually, smiling at the wrong sort of people could kill you...
 
  • #48
Dembadon said:
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 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_drowning" . Whether or not 1 milliliter would be enough is tough to say.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
  • #49
S_Happens said:
A laryngospasm can occur from very small amount of water producing death by 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:
 
Last edited by a moderator:
  • #50
rootX said:
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.
 

Similar threads

Android Smartphone Nightmare: Unanswered Questions#\#
Replies
6
Views
1K
Can Voltage Kill You? | Understanding Electricity & Voltage
Replies
14
Views
3K
Apple Plans to Kill Jailbroken iPhones
Replies
21
Views
7K
Anyone sick and tired of all the fancy techy stuffs?
Replies
22
Views
2K
Starfield: New First-Person Epic Role-Playing Game by BGS
Replies
9
Views
2K
How do you personally cope with stress?
2
Replies
66
Views
7K
What Mundane Superpowers Would You Choose?
Replies
20
Views
3K
Did My Dream Predict My Cat's Death?
Replies
14
Views
4K
Other Considering a career shift and seeking general guidance
Replies
9
Views
1K
I Rigorous: Where is the Quantum System Prior to Measurement?
Replies
12
Views
1K

Hot Threads

Recent Insights

Back
Top