Is it possible for a ceiling fan to decapitate?

Question

I'm talking the metal-bladed kind. Can you lose a limb, finger or head? Or just get badly cut.

In case anyone is wondering, I am asking because the fan is above a bed and I'm worried about someone jumping or standing on the bed

Answer 1

iamnotlexi is not quite 100% correct. Yes it was on Mythbusters, but it was considered "Busted" because the dummy was not actually decapitated. They tried the experiment with your standard household ceiling fan and an industrial strength metal fan. The house fan would have given you little more than a bruise, the industrial fan would have caused an open wound (possible fatal because of cutting major arteries in the neck), but not decapitation. You would most likely live long enough to go to the hospital to get stitched up. In the true sense of busting myths the team set out to find IF it could be done. They made their own fan and attached it to a lawn mower engine. Though the dummy's head was SEVERELY cut, it was not completely severed. Maybe about half. Definitely fatal though! So for your question, bruise, yes. Cut, possibly. Decapitation, no.

Answer 2

if the fan was installed correctly and all the wiring in the building was up to date and code then i don't think a person would loose there head as a result of one of the fans.
if the fan was wired up differently then the way it is supposed to be i mean if a great deal more power was fed to the fan then what it is suppose to have then for a short time until the motor failed from too much power or the fan became so out of balance and just stopped because it is spinning much faster then it is designed to then OK for a short period of time a fan could be made to spin at such a great speed that it would cut off a persons head but that is a long shot i think . i think it would also require that someone set out to make this fan run in such a way as no person is going to install a fan like that by accident.
the fan would need to be hooked up to a wire that was for a welding machine or something . or the person would have to remove the fuses from the panel and also in some cases the fan
and or rig the breaker switches up so they failed .
all of this plus a persons neck would have to come in contact at just the wrong place and time to make all of that happen ,
are you thinking of cutting of your head or someone other persons

Answer 3

Only the big whirring kind. You don't really want to risk it though, just think of the mess and then all the news shows talking about the idiot who almost decapitated himself with a fan and then there is the never ending teasing in the afterlife about the way you chose to go out. Not a pretty picture

Answer 4

They had this on Mythbusters. I think it was proved true with a really sharp, industrial metal fan. With a house fan, I doubt it. The dummy wasn't decapitated but he did get a nice knick in his neck.