Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Captain Corea]

Not sure if this 'new' theory has been posted here or not...

http://askakorean.blogspot.com/2009/01/fan-death-is-real.html

[wormholes101]

More than 50% of our body weight is water. That's hell of a lot of water to lose before you stop sweating.

Fighters such as boxers, wrestlers and mixed martial artists often cut tremendous amount of weight, sometimes about 10% of their body weight. Sometimes even to the point where they stop sweating. They sit in saunas and run on treadmills with giant plastic "sweatsuits" on for hours to sweat off the water weight.

There's no way a piddly little fan would accomplish this effect.

(Perhaps someone should tell these fighters a new and easy way to cut weight has been discoved. Simply sleep with the fan on!)

[denverdeath]

Pretty comical explanation...like the rest.

I've done the fan-death test on myself twice...once drunk, and once sober. I'm still living, but many Koreans tell me the reason I survived is that I'm not Korean.

Granted, I did the tests in our old house's bathroom. I also used a HUGE fan to make sure no one could attribute the use of a crappy, powerless fan to my survival.

As the bathroom door in our old place was warped, we got a pretty damned good seal going. PROBABLY not a TRUE vacuum, but even I wouldn't have been stupid enough, even while drunk, to put myself in an air(thus, oxygen)-free vacuum.

The other factor that I now have to reconsider is that I believe one of the tests was done in the winter, and maybe this newfound "hyperthermia" explanation is what saved my life?!?

Back to the lab...

[Captain Corea]

Yeah, I'd be curious to know about how temperatures affect sweat rates. I imagine that there have been studies done in some hot climates somewhere.

[TheUrbanMyth]

[quote="Captain Corea"]Not sure if this 'new' theory has been posted here or not...

http://askakorean.blogspot.com/2009/01/fan-death-is-real.html

[eamo]

The 'scientific' tests I saw once on Korean TV to attempt to explain that Fan Death was possible were all centered on hypothermia.....not once was dehydration mentioned, AFAIK.

If Fan Death was plausible, and it was killing people every year, wouldn't one think the Korean scientists would have established a coherent explanation for it that could be understood by any other scientist?

[ThingsComeAround]

This is one good reason of why the rest of the world doesn't come here to study science

[Louis VI]

Brought to us by none other than CAPTAIN COREA!

[wintermute]

Obviously, it's not going to kill a normal, healthy person like us.

You often hear stories of this or that country/city that has a heatwave in which x number of people die. Died from what exactly, and how to they make a causal link? I'm just saying it's possible Korea isn't the only country to use inexact science when reporting on heat related deaths.

I think the theory of the moving air causing the body to dehydrate to the point where the cooling mechanisms do not work so well is scientifically sound.

No one is claiming a 100% mortality rate from the fans, but if you are a septuagenarian alcoholic suffering through an intense heatwave a fan might very well kill you.

[Unposter]

I'm sorry I don't get it. If you die from dehydration, you don't die because of the fan. If anything, the fan will keep you from sweating too much by cooling you even if you sweat a little.

Bottom line: If you are so dehydrated from drinking, you don't need the fan to kill you. The cause of death is alcohol related. You would be killed whether there was a fan or not. And, you would need to be really, really drunk to suffer this way.

I don't really understand the causality, though I am open to being explained.

And, I would think it would be really difficult to die from alcohol related dehydration, somewhat because I have never heard of anyone dying this way.

[Nester Noodlemon]

[young_clinton]

Why is it bad luck to walk under a ladder or cross the path of a black cat?


Or break a mirror?

[balzor]

1. Severe Hypothermia, which is where death occurs, starts when the body cools to 88F. No small fan on a person will cause this. The room would need to be in the 50's to cause immersion hypothermia(same as being under water).
2. If this was a legit cause of death, don't you think that the world would know about it and there would be signs posted about the dangers of leaving a fan on at night.
3. I explained to a Co-teacher that Fan death was bogus after she insisted it was real. She went home, researched it and came back next day and apologized saying once she actually looked at it, it didn't make any sense.
4. I can see how some sick,old frail person might get chilled overnight (such as winter time when people die from not having heating) and it cause them to shut down, but a normal healthy person would never succumb to this.

[Captain Corea]

[rollo]

Fan death is Korean tradition. Korea is the only place in the world with four seasons and fan death!!!