[Debate] Can peopIe SpontaneousIy Combust?

[John Cuthber]

I don't see it as a very good theory.

In neutral or alkaline conditions as found in most of the body, nitrates are very poor oxidising agents.

Potassium nitrate melts at about 340C and decomposes at about 400. So there's no way for it to release oxygen in a stomach unless that stomach is already on fire.

Moonshine is unlikely to be as high as 98 % because simple distillation won't get above 96%

It's expensive in energy terms to get that far.

 

Not many people drink straight alcohol because it simply isn't very nice- it burns your mouth and throat. Even winos would add water. Together with the price, it would be a poor decision to waste money removing water then add it back.

 

But the point is moot.

Sure, alcohol is a fuel, but nobody ever disputed the presence of a fuel in the body- fat burns quite well.

 

As you point out, its difficult to get enough oxygen to a fire inside the body, but, again, the point is moot.

There's plenty of oxygen in the air outside the body.

 

Sorry, but as I see it, that's not a theory at all because it doesn't work.

[BlueSpike]

Hmm I wonder what would happen if you put the enzymes that make nitrate in the body and then dropped them into a concentrated solution of their substrate. Would the nitrate concentration build up to be enough to have a dangerously strong oxidizing potential?

[John Cuthber]

"Hmm I wonder what would happen if you put the enzymes that make nitrate in the body and then dropped them into a concentrated solution of their substrate"

For a start, they would need quite a lot of substrates- but that;'s not the point.

The most likely thing is that you would denature the proteins and they wouldn't work.

"Would the nitrate concentration build up to be enough to have a dangerously strong oxidizing potential?"

Well, if by some fluke they did, the nitrate would destroy whatever was nearby- probably starting with the enzyme.

 

Who cares?

Even if you swallowed a saturated solution of KNO3 it doesn't produce oxygen until you have evaporated off the water and heated the stuff to nearly red hot.

 

It's still not a theory.