Weighing the soul
Stories from Physics
for 11-14
14-16
The Boston physician, Dr Duncan MacDougall, carried out one of the strangest mass measurements ever performed, reported in a paper published in 1907. MacDougall measured the mass of six patients before and immediately after their deaths and recorded mass difference of between 8 and 35 g. In a similar experiment with dogs, no difference in mass was detected, which was explained by the assumption that dogs have no soul. Later work, by a Swedish psychiatrist, established a figure of around 21 g for the mass of the soul.
References
E. Robens, S. Amarasiri, & A. Jayaweera, Balances: Instruments, Manufacturers, History, Berlin, Springer-Verlag, 2014, p. 407