We are often unaware of the reason behind various occurrences or phenomena in the world. One such question is currently going viral on social media. Why do dead bodies float in water? This question was recently asked on Quora by a user. The question reads: “As long as a person is alive, he drowns if he does not know how to swim in water; but when he dies, the body starts floating in water. Why?” Today, let’s find out the appropriate answer to this question.
Many users have answered this. One user said that when a person dies, bacteria start forming inside them, which produces different gases. These gasses cause the human body’s density to drop, causing the dead body to float on water.
According to another user, when a person dies, the body stops producing oxygen but continues to expel carbon dioxide, which causes the cells to die. The amount of air in the body starts increasing, and the density of the body becomes less than the density of water. This is the reason why the dead body starts floating on top of water.
According to experts, the floating of anything on water depends on its density and the water it displaces. Things with a higher density sink into water.
According to Archimedes’ principle, a body immersed in a fluid experiences an upwards thrust, equal to the weight of the fluid displaced, and this is fundamental to the equilibrium of a body floating in still water. In motionless water, gravity exerts a downward force on a body floating freely. Due to the high density of a living person, it sinks in water, but the dead body floats in water due to gases. Its volume increases, and density decreases, that’s why a dead body starts floating in water.
