Unexplained event

[MidnightFlyer]

This is one of the stranger questions you'll ever see on here, and I'm aware this isn't strictly what this sub-forum is for but I really can't think of any better place I could ask this.

Basically, what rational explanations are there for something falling from a windowsill or shelf with no-one present? I've just had to clean up a broken vase downstairs that's fallen from a windowsill. I was upstairs when I heard a crash, and when I went to investigate I was met with a vase in about 40 pieces, a bunch of flowers and a soaked floor. I'm all alone (no pets etc or anyone else home) and there's no signs of anything else changing: all doors and windows locked, everything's as it was when I left before, and there's no other signs of disturbance. The window at the sill in question was locked and the sill itself dry.

I'm quite confused as to what on earth's just happened to me, does anyone know how it could be explained?

Cheers (and no, I'm not imagining or making this up!)

 

[90019]

I'm quite confused as to what on earth's just happened to me, does anyone know how it could be explained?

Depending where it was sitting, it may just have overbalanced somehow, possibly even caused by the small movements of the plants.



Alternatively:

[youtube]KvkKX035484[/youtube]

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Any house will constantly be affected by tiny vibrations that you wouldn't even notice; over time the vase will have gradually reached the point at which it could overbalance.

Have you checked for any tremors in your area? http://www.earthquakes.bgs.ac.uk/ ( Very unusually low level of activity recently though - there's only a fraction of the normal volume listed! )

The other possibility is Quantum Theory has played a part; in theory it is perfectly possible for all the atoms / smaller particles in a given object to move in the same direction at exactly the same time and as a result the object can move itself. However, the odds on that happening are supposed to be so high that many hundreds of billions of years would need to pass before it can be demonstrated to have happened....


Failing all that, if your house is built on the site of an old cemetery, get rid of your TV set.... they're baaacccckkkkkkkk.....!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Thanks both, I knew there was something that can cause sudden seemingly unprovoked movements, I just didn't know what it was specifically. It was about an three inches or so back from the edge, it just looked like it had fallen clean onto the floor.

If worst comes to the worst I'll just go down there later with a Bible and try and banish the devil from the windowsill's soul!

 

[Peter Mugridge]

I take it you aren't anywhere near one of the red dots on the BGS map then?

 

[MidnightFlyer]

I take it you aren't anywhere near one of the red dots on the BGS map then?

Nope, not within a hundred miles by the looks of it. Just as I'm typing this the clouds have darkened and thunder is beginning to roll!

EDIT - It's now a full blown thunderstorm...

 

[deltic1989]

A Truck or Bus may have passed while you were out of the room causing a vibration that caused an already tetering vase to finally take the plunge.

 

[MattRobinson]

I have 3 identical goose-neck lights, all in a row (each separated by about 1m). Two of them are used as desk lights, the third as a bedside light. When I got home from my holiday earlier this month, the goose-neck of the middle one was snapped off and was laying on my desk next to the base. There was nothing that appeared to have fallen on it, and the house had been locked up for 2 weeks. Any explanations?

 

[90019]

Any explanations?

Could just have been a flaw in the material, like something contaminating that particular lamp or batch of material, meaning that over time it's gradually fatigued before finally failing, coincidentally while you were away.

 

[MattRobinson]

Could just have been a flaw in the material, like something contaminating that particular lamp or batch of material, meaning that over time it's gradually fatigued before finally failing, coincidentally while you were away.

I should have mentioned that the lamps were about 1 month old. Unlikely, TBH.

 

[deltic1989]

Could just have been a flaw in the material, like something contaminating that particular lamp or batch of material, meaning that over time it's gradually fatigued before finally failing, coincidentally while you were away.

I should have mentioned that the lamps were about 1 month old. Unlikely, TBH.

You nave to consider how long the lamps were in the warehouse / on the shop floor before you bought them.
I would be inclined to agree with 90019 on this one, Fatigue due to manufacturing impurities can happen to a product of any age, I know this from personal experience.

 

[Giugiaro]

Well, for the first situation I would bet on vibrations, like did 90019, in a way that vibrations had a frequency similar to the windowsill's resonant frequency, causing it to tremble. The vase would then be shaked off the windowsill.