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Estimating (Your) Time of Death
Townhall.com ^ | Octobe | Political Calculations

Posted on 10/06/2014 2:22:36 PM PDT by Kaslin

Having gone inexplicably dark in exploring the white and black markets for cadavers yesterday, we thought it might be a good time to get back on the right side of the law by creating the world's first free app for estimating how long ago a person died from the temperature of their corpse.

The tool below is based on Catherine Lipford's Powerpoint presentation on "The Calculus of CSI", in which we will apply Newton's Law of Cooling to solve the problem of algor mortis: the slow change in temperature that a formerly living, healthy body experiences as it equilibrates with its surrounding environment.

Just enter the indicated information in the tool below to do the math for either our default example or the situation that applies for the corpse under your consideration.... (If you're reading this article on a site that republishes our RSS news feed, click here to access a working version of this tool!

For CSI wannabes, ideally, these temperatures need to be recorded at the time and place where the body is discovered, taking care to note the time of discovery. Sadly, what you will need to do to take accurate measurements will not be consistent with the glamorous career that television makes this kind of work out to be.

For our default example, it would seem that some 6.06 hours have elapsed since death occurred. Determining the time of death then is as simple as turning the clock back from the time the body's and the ambient temperature was measured by that amount.


TOPICS: Health/Medicine
KEYWORDS:

1 posted on 10/06/2014 2:22:36 PM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin
...algor mortis: the slow change in temperature that a formerly living, healthy body experiences as it equilibrates with its surrounding environment.

Algore mortis. A formerly living body coming into equilibrium with the environment. Yes, it explains so much, so very, very much...

2 posted on 10/06/2014 2:27:41 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: Kaslin

I need to know the answer to this so I can figure out when to apply for SSI.


3 posted on 10/06/2014 2:30:09 PM PDT by fulltlt
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To: Kaslin

Yesterday at 9:00am, I didn’t get the memo until just now.


4 posted on 10/06/2014 2:33:48 PM PDT by CAP811 (One man can change the world with a bullet in the right place)
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To: Kaslin

I recall a case on Court TV where a husband murdered his wife, then turned the bedroom heater way up.

He went some place out of town for the rest of the day, came home, cooled down the bedroom, then phoned Police and claimed he had just “discovered” his wife dead in their bedroom.

However, he made some other incriminating errors, I can’t recall what, and was convicted.


5 posted on 10/06/2014 2:37:01 PM PDT by zeestephen
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To: Kaslin
Estimating (Your) Time of Death

I don't know. What are Hussein's "Death Panels" saying?

6 posted on 10/06/2014 2:37:12 PM PDT by The Sons of Liberty (I want a Speaker who'll stick that pen and phone where no one but Reggie Love can find it!)
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To: Billthedrill

I always thought Algore was mortis.


7 posted on 10/06/2014 2:42:30 PM PDT by Catmom (We're all gonna get the punishment only some of us deserve.)
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To: Kaslin

When are they planning the gun confiscation raids? Those will get some people dead.


8 posted on 10/06/2014 2:42:52 PM PDT by Disambiguator
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To: Kaslin

This just in: Hugo Chavez is still dead.


9 posted on 10/06/2014 2:54:23 PM PDT by BenLurkin (This is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire; or both.)
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To: Kaslin

Moments after you criticize your wife’s meatloaf.


10 posted on 10/06/2014 2:57:47 PM PDT by minnesota_bound
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To: Kaslin

Cross the Clintons .... about a week.


11 posted on 10/06/2014 3:06:58 PM PDT by RetiredTexasVet (Put lipstick on a Communist and call it a Progressive, but it's still a Communist with lipstick.)
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To: Kaslin

I’ve been on free time since 25 so I’m good any day.


12 posted on 10/06/2014 3:14:01 PM PDT by maddog55
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To: Billthedrill

Droll, Bill, very droll :) but I love it!


13 posted on 10/06/2014 3:16:23 PM PDT by NonValueAdded ("Kerry, as Obama's plenipotentiary, is a paradox - the physical presence of a geopolitical absence")
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To: Billthedrill

I would opine that the constitution and the republic are long dead having assume room temperature in Jan 2009.


14 posted on 10/06/2014 4:16:56 PM PDT by the anti-mahdi
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To: Kaslin

And i need to know this, why??!!


15 posted on 10/06/2014 9:44:23 PM PDT by Conservative4Ever (waiting for my Magic 8 ball to give me an answer)
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