Is it physically possible to vaporize someone?

Question

I saw it on CSI Miami a few weeks ago, and I'm really curious about that. I konw that they kind of explained how it worked, so I know theoretically it could work but what about in the real world?

Answer 1

hahahah thats a good one.

you must really dislike someone and want to get them back.

no, besides throwing them into the sun or hitting them with an atomic bomb, it would be VERY difficult to find the POWER needed to vaporize the entire mass of a human INSTANTLY.

TV is NOT REAL!!!

Answer 2

The answer to that question is unfortunately, yes. Things such as a large amount of high explosives used by the military or demolition companies, a powerful enough fuel-air explosion, explosions of other explosive materials such as rocket fuel or a nuclear explosion can and has turned people into vapors. When we bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki back in WW-II everyone for up to a mile from ground zero was vaporized and their shadows were etched into concrete. Many non-nuclear weapons used by modern armies, navies and air forces will vaporize anyone close to them when they detonate. Another way for a person to get vaporized is to contact and short out electrical lines, such as those high-tension power transmission lines. I'm an electrician, and I've seen how metals and other things vaporize when a massive charge of electricity passes through them. 200 amps of 240-volt current will vaporize a screwdriver. I'm sure someone grabbing a hold of a energized transmission line would be turned into ashes if that line was one that carries 750,000 volts like the really big ones you see all over the country. Unless someone actually invents something like Star Trek's phasers, the only way something like this would ever happen is a war or one horrendous accident taking place.

Answer 3

that comes from the story of a 1960s linear partical accelerator that has arroused many questions such as

Is the beam created by a 1960s-vintage, three-story-tall, Linear Particle Accelerator capable of instantly disintegrating a quarter of a human body, bones and all? Specifically, the complete arm, shoulder, and half the thorax were vaporized exposing the pleural cavity.


But,a Linear particle accelerator is a high-precision instrument, which operates in hard vacuum, and operates in a tightly focused beam (< 1 cm). Also it's "linear" so the three-story object is possibly a large capacitor bank as used in the inital ion generation and similar to the ones used by rail guns and fusion lasers.

1/4 human body = 25000 grams = 4500 moles = 2.7 x 10^27 atoms
Vaporization = 6000 kelvins = 0.5 eV/atom
Vaporization 1/4 human body = 1.35x10^27 eV = 2.2x10^8 joules = 220 megajoule
Instantly: 0.05 second = 50 milliseconds
Vaporization 1/4 human body Instantly = 4.4x10^9 watts = 4.4 gigawatts!

According to http://www.rheinmetall.de/index.php?fid=1805&lang=3
As of March 2006, the largest capacitor bank in the world is only capable of 50 megajoules, which would heat the 1/4 human being to only 1000 kelvin (burnt and crispy and smelly, not vaporized) and takes 2-300 milliseconds to discharge, which is fast, but not what humans percieve as instant.

p.s. the suface temperature of the sun is just enough to vaporize 1/4 of the human body at 6273 degrees kelvin
p.s.s.to vaporize some one with an atomic explosion the would have to be within 100 meters of the initial blast (which is very very close) and remain there through the shockwave

Answer 4

Seams Like just about all your answers are wrong. Yes indeed it is possible to vaporize someone.But when this incident does happen it is not the act of humans , but the mysterious act of God. Its force comes from beyond our natural realm. It is called Spontaneous Combustion.Weather people believe it . It is still an recurring unsolved mystery.Personally ,I believe it will always be a mystery to humans for the reason . The person vaporizes into a unquenchable flame ,that devours all evidence to possible analyze.

Answer 5

humans are mostly water so it is simply a matter of applying sufficient energy for sufficient time for the matter that makes up a human body to be evaporated. We do not have a vaporizing ray gun but the atom bomb was certainly effective, a variety of other military weapons can do it, very large discharges of electicity have done it, oil well fires, industrial explosions, etc. Many people opt for cremation rather than burial. Cremation is not usually done to high enough temperatures or for long enough times to completely vaporize the body, that way there are ashes and bone fragments that can be given to the family for burial or disposal according to the wishes of the deceased.

Answer 6

With enough energy, yes. Your body is composed of mostly water, which will turn into a gas when heated to 100* celcius at sea level. I believe it turns to plasma at around 10,000* celsius, and freezes at 0*C.

With this being said, different elements change states at different temperatures and pressures. You would need to achieve the highest level needed for the specific chemicals involved.

You would simply have to have enough energy to excite the moleules enough to unravel themselves, at times releasing even more energy. The state of matter becomes hot enough to shift into a liquid and gas. With enough gas put between liquid particles, I suppose you could consider something effectively vaporized, although the process isn't a complete vaporization if there are still states of liquid within the mass, I think that it's close enough.

You're still going to get the same violent POOF effect.

At higher energy levels, the forth state of matter, "plasma" is achieved.


At energies even higher, atoms can be formed into completely different types of atoms. Ex, the sun turns hydrogen into helium through a process known as fusion.

When a star goes supernovae, it's collapses and that collapse causes the concentration of enough energy and pressure to create heavier atoms like carbon, silicon, iron and the various other elements on the periodic table.

With enough energy, anything is possible. Just look around you.

NOTHING happens instantaneously.

Answer 7

To vaporize a human you would need an incredible amount of heat, more than a blowtorch or a furnace.
Those would burn the tissue to ashes but would still leave fragments of bone and teeth.
You could do it with a nuclear explosion, or if you tossed a person into the core of a nuclear reactor.
But that would be the only way (outside of a Star Trek phaser).

Answer 8

In some cases with super high voltage such as in a very large capacitor bank you could vaporize your hand and sometimes your entire arm. So if the voltage is high enough I guess you could vaporize an entire human. In plasma chambers like the ones I have at work you could probably vaporize a body in one of them.

Answer 9

hm, i don't think so. because if they figured out a way to vaporize a person, then right now, they'd obviously be able to vaporize many other creatures/things and i'm not aware of anything like that happening

Answer 10

Yes, it is possible, but it is NOT practical. The only way to vaporize the entire human body is to perhaps throw them into a star or blow them up with a nuclear weapon....but who in their right mind would do such a thing.