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From: debray@sbcs.UUCP (Saumya Debray)
Newsgroups: net.physics
Subject: Re: Evidence for the soul?!? - (nf)
Message-ID: <574@sbcs.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 14-Jan-84 12:24:01 EST
Article-I.D.: sbcs.574
Posted: Sat Jan 14 12:24:01 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 16-Jan-84 01:49:30 EST
References: <1177@mhuxm.UUCP>
Organization: SUNY at Stony Brook
Lines: 35


 2212zap@mhuxm.UUCP (putnins):

	> I have also heard of this sudden weight loss upon death. 
	> One possible 	explanation is the collapse of the lungs upon
	> death, and the associated loss of air.  This loss of air
	> could be measurble.

Not really.  Think of the body as immersed in a fluid (air, in this case).
The weight gained in inhaling a volume V of air would be exactly equal to
the weight loss due to the extra buoyancy because the chest has inflated in
the process of inhalation. (I know that's an oversimplification, but I doubt
this topic needs anything more scholarly!) Conversely, the weight of the air
lost when the lungs collapsed would be compensated for by a loss in
buoyancy, so the resultant weight shouldn't change.

Actually, when I first thought about it I considered the body as a
topological surface: then, the air "inside" the lungs isn't really inside
from a topological point of view.  Which brings me to a more interesting
aside: the human body with the alimentary canal (again, massive
physiological simplifications, but you get the idea!)  can be considered
topologically equivalent to a toroid, which suggests that last night's
dinner isn't really "inside" us!

-- 
Saumya Debray
Dept. of Computer Science
SUNY at Stony Brook

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