Death by fan!!!

desteffy

Golden Member
Jul 16, 2004
1,911
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Fan death is an urban legend that originated in South Korea, but has since spread to other countries in the Far East. The belief is that an electric fan, if left running overnight in a closed room, can result in the death (by suffocation, poisoning, or hypothermia) of those inside. This belief also extends to air conditioners and the fans in cars. When the air conditioner or fan is on in a car, some people are apt to leave their car windows open a crack to avoid "fan death." Fans manufactured and sold in Korea are equipped with a timer switch that turns them off after a set number of minutes, which users are frequently urged to set when going to sleep with a fan on.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_death

Has anyone ever heard of this. A friend of mine told me and claims that a lot of Korean people believe it, but I doubt any more of them believe that than americans believe in spontaneous human combustion... anyone heard of this ... or believe in it?

Illustration of how it works...
 

destrekor

Lifer
Nov 18, 2005
28,799
359
126
lol
i've used air conditioners in a car for long periods.. im still here... at least i think i am
 

Atomicus

Banned
May 20, 2004
5,192
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I just told my parents about this thread... but they still believe and keep telling me these stories about deaths by fan in Taiwan... Asians are so funny :p
 

yosuke188

Platinum Member
Apr 19, 2005
2,726
2
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Yah my parents (Japanese) keep telling me not to leave the fan on while going to sleep. Oh we slept with the air conditioner on the whole night a couple times this summer, and I'm still here.
 

skim milk

Diamond Member
Apr 8, 2003
5,784
1
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it's true.. I'm korean and a lot of the korean people believe that the fan can cause death

they mean.. when you sleep.. if you have the fan directly pointed towards you and not rotating
 

Atomicus

Banned
May 20, 2004
5,192
0
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HAHAHA! My mom said you can have the fan aimed at a wall and the flow of air deflected unto you and that is fine. But direct exposure causes death?

Someone should compile all these Asian urban myths into an Asian version of Scary Movie
 

Johntk5

Banned
Sep 2, 2006
118
0
0
I am viet and my parents think something similar. So sad, that we believe such nonsense.
 

Jeff7

Lifer
Jan 4, 2001
41,596
20
81
1) Rooms are not anywhere near airtight.
2) Convection fans do not have the power to produce a significant enough vacuum to be even noticable, much less dangerous.

The people would be in more danger from an electrical fire resulting from faulty wiring in the fan (a possiblity marginally increased by the extra wiring in the timing circuitry) than from suffocation.


Originally posted by: Johntk5
I am viet and my parents think something similar. So sad, that we believe such nonsense.
Let's see, other things:
- Knock on wood. I had a teacher who, every time she'd say that, and she wasn't standing near something wooden, she would actually look around for something and walk over to it to knock her hand on it.
- Cracking knuckles causes arthritis. This has been disproven. What is most likely the problem is that people who do things that make them susceptible to arthritis (strenuous, repetitive manual activity) are more likely to want to crack their knuckles, thus creating the illusion that the very audible knuckle-cracking is the culprit.
- The number 13 here, or 4 in Japan. Or 666. Where my dad worked, he said that someone's PC terminal number was 666. The person literally refused to work at the PC until its designation was changed. How many buildings don't have a "Floor 13" on them, despite the fact that the floor that follows the 12th will always be 13th. Arctic Silver 5 - AS4 was skipped because 4 is unlucky or something like that in Japan.
- Opening an umbrella inside. Yeah, really dangerous.
- Break a mirror, 7 years bad luck. The only reason why I can see some truth to this is that if you break glass over a bathroom rug, you might find tiny glass shards for the next 7 years, though even that is unlikely.
- Certain objects bring luck. Deep Space Nine showed that the only way of changing the odds of certain things happening is to make neutrinos all spin the same way, and I'm fairly sure that rabbit's feet or quartz crystals cannot do that.
 

Dessert Tears

Golden Member
Feb 27, 2005
1,100
0
76
Originally posted by: fritolays
they mean.. when you sleep.. if you have the fan directly pointed towards you and not rotating
By "rotating," you mean oscillating side-to-side, right? It'd be even crazier if fans caused death without being turned on.
 

mooncancook

Platinum Member
May 28, 2003
2,874
50
91
My parents told me about something like that be4, I don't believe it. Someone help me disapprove it by placing a fan less than 2 feet away and let it blow directly at the face for an entire night and come back to tell us if there's any ill effect next morning.
 

Johntk5

Banned
Sep 2, 2006
118
0
0
Originally posted by: mooncancook
My parents told me about something like that be4, I don't believe it. Someone help me disapprove it by placing a fan less than 2 feet away and let it blow directly at the face for an entire night and come back to tell us if there's any ill effect next morning.


I ignore my parents nonsense and do this each night.
 

Eeezee

Diamond Member
Jul 23, 2005
9,922
0
76
I thought asians were supposed to be smart, wtf nonsense is this?

Circulating air in a room will not cause suffocation.
 

PlatinumGold

Lifer
Aug 11, 2000
23,168
0
71
Originally posted by: desteffy
Fan death is an urban legend that originated in South Korea, but has since spread to other countries in the Far East. The belief is that an electric fan, if left running overnight in a closed room, can result in the death (by suffocation, poisoning, or hypothermia) of those inside. This belief also extends to air conditioners and the fans in cars. When the air conditioner or fan is on in a car, some people are apt to leave their car windows open a crack to avoid "fan death." Fans manufactured and sold in Korea are equipped with a timer switch that turns them off after a set number of minutes, which users are frequently urged to set when going to sleep with a fan on.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_death

Has anyone ever heard of this. A friend of mine told me and claims that a lot of Korean people believe it, but I doubt any more of them believe that than americans believe in spontaneous human combustion... anyone heard of this ... or believe in it?

Illustration of how it works...

i'm korean and my mother / grandmother told me this would happen when i was 7 or so, that was 34 yrs ago, so yes, it's possible that other koreans have believed this.
 

Jeff7

Lifer
Jan 4, 2001
41,596
20
81
Originally posted by: Johntk5
Originally posted by: mooncancook
My parents told me about something like that be4, I don't believe it. Someone help me disapprove it by placing a fan less than 2 feet away and let it blow directly at the face for an entire night and come back to tell us if there's any ill effect next morning.


I ignore my parents nonsense and do this each night.

That'll just happen to be the night when you just happen to die of a heart attack or brain aneurysm.
 

GuitarDaddy

Lifer
Nov 9, 2004
11,465
1
0
Hell I can't sleep unless I've got a 20" box fan blowing directly in my face:)

Been sleeping that way for over 40yrs, summer, winter, always. The cumulative effect must be enormous, I probably only have a few days to live:(

Although I may have special emunities:confused: