If you soak your leg in vinegar will the bones be softened?

Question

I was surfing the web and I read this one thing that said if you were trying to break your bone (for some unknown reason) you could put an ace bandage in vinegar then wrap around your leg. If you leave it on for like 4 hours the bones will be softened from the vinegar and you could break your leg just from like jumping up and down. Is that true? Don't get the wrong idea. I'm not planning on breaking my leg. I'm just curious if that would really work.

Answer 1

No, that's a false claim. Vinegar is a weak acid, not even as acidic as lemon juice (with a pH of 2.8 vs. 2.3), and soaking bandages in vinegar would only provide a very small amount of vinegar to react with anything. In addition, you have a lot of water-resistant skin and fat, and muscle tissue, between this small amount of vinegar, and the bones in your legs. Even without the skin, fat and muscle in your legs, the bones are very thick and strong, and would take a long time to dissolve with a lot more acidic substance than is available in some vinegar-soaked bandages.

Finally, even if vinegar did manage to "dissolve" your leg bones, the bones would become rubbery and flexible, rather than weak and brittle. This would actually make them *harder* to break, as they'd be more likely to bend and flex.

By way of demonstrating this, try using some chicken thigh bones - which are much weaker than human leg bones (just compare the thickness!) - and immersing them directly in a cup of vinegar. After 4 hours, you'll find that they're not really changed noticeably, even with this direct immersion. It takes a couple of days (at least) of direct immersion to make the bones noticeably weaker, and you'll then be able to remove the bones from the acid and bend them as if they were made of rubber or plastic.

Answer 2

Definitely not true. There is no way for the vinegar to penetrate the skin and get to the bone. Pure rubbish.

If you drop a chicken bone into a glass of vinegar and leave it there for a week, it will become rubbery---an old 'science for kids' kind of thing. Probably where this crazy rumor started.

Answer 3

ive never heard of that, could just be a bunch of bull..i would say no, because the vinegar would have to go through too many layers of skin, muscle, tendons ect..in order to soften the bone. plus, my daughter did a science project on softening bones with vinegar, and it took several days for the bone to be able to bend..

Answer 4

No, wrapping your leg in vinegar reduces swelling, that is why people use it. It is great for a swollen knee or hurt muscles.

Answer 5

LOL hell no, unless you have some super strong vinegar that can penetrate all the layers of your skin (epidermis, dermis. AND hypodermis) - not to mention fat and muscle tissue and still be potent enough to destroy perfectly healthy bone tissue...

Answer 6

yes, but its vinegar concentration that needs to do that could not be found in stores. IT is very possible.

just like that one question?

is it true you can make uranium for a nuke bomb?
- yes, but the specialist "concentrate" the amount with some physics crap. (Which one cannot do it alone, i believe)

than again....ppl have different view

Answer 7

No, it wouldn't do it to your leg but have you ever soaked an egg for about 24-48 hours in vinegar...if not try it!!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 8

first off,how does softening a bone mend it?!?!why would you waste your time "softening bones"instead of getting a cast?the answer is NO.its not possible,and even if it were possible its an idiotic idea.please tell me were you found this because this is just depressing on someone would believe or even attempt to prove it

Answer 9

Never heard of this one. I would imagine that vinegar would really irritate your skin, though!

Answer 10

I HIGHLY doubt it, lol! You'd have to soak that through your skin, muscle, fat AND bone. If it were true...we'd all be a mess and Italian dressing would be banned! LOL!