Ghost Hunting Flashlight Trick: Physical Explanation and Experiments
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- Опубликовано: 28 авг 2024
- Some ghost hunters use a flashlight to communicate with ghosts. Typically, the performing ghost hunter turns the flashlight's head to a position where the lamp easily goes on or off by the slightest touch. Then the ghost hunter puts it on a table or on the ground and starts asking questions. Eventually, the flashlight seems to respond by going on or off. The questioning goes on, and the flashlight keeps going on and off without any noticable force affecting it. The ghost hunters claim that the flashlight is operated by a spirit.
But there is a physical explanation for the flashlight repeatedly going on and off by itself. This video presents experiments with the Mini Maglite 2-Cell AA (Xenon), which happens to be the model used in the TV-Show "Ghost Hunters" that made the trick popular. Experimental results and considerations of contact physics reveal that the trick is actually caused by a heat cycle.
In particular, the cycling is caused by the flashlight's reflector expanding under the heat of the lamp and contracting when the lamp is off, thereby breaking or making contact as it is reducing or increasing pressure on the switch. The long and distinct on and off phases of the cycle are caused by complex events on the contact surfaces. First, when the lamp is off, some pressure is required to break the insulating layers of oxide and other debris that cover the contact surfaces. The lamp stays off until the reflector contracted far enough so that the spring in the tail cap inflicts enough pressure on the contacts to break the oxide layers. When the layers break, the first point of electric contact overheats, melts and spreads, and the contacts get welded together. As the lamp goes on, the reflector starts expanding from the heat of the lamp. It expands until it generated enough force to break the welded spot. Depending on the quality of the weld, the lamp either goes off quickly, as the contact surfaces jump apart, or it goes off flickering, as a bridge of molten metal is formed between the contacts which burns out. After the lamp goes off and the contacts start closing again, it takes some time to remake contact. Because if the surfaces jumped apart when the welded contact spot broke, the resulting gap needs to be closed again. In any case, pressure on the contacts needs to be built up again to break the oxide layers, which either grew back instantly after the weld broke or which got even worse by the oxidization and degredation of the liquid contact bridge. As contact is remade, the cycle starts again.
My God, not only is this very detailed presentation comprehensive, it's absolute perfection. There is no video or reading material out there that come close to the work done in this video. I would pay tons of money to have the dude who made this video on my paranormal team, or should I say I would pay to be on his. I struggle to find words to articulate how good this presentation is. HI FIVE!!!!!
***** I understood it completely. It does prove that flashlight ITC is not paranormal. I don't know why you thought I did. The reason why I said I would want this guy on my team is because most of what paranormal investigators do is find normal explanations for reported paranormal phenomena. What part of my comment suggests otherwise?
Buzzfeed Unsolved sallie house brought me here
On buzzfeed unsolved the flashlight stays lit and it turn off when Shane and Ryan said so it's not blinking like that. It takes too long to turn on and turned off stays lit and at Shane and ryans command.this trick turned the flashlight on/off 3 times in 5 seconds. like the flashlight has mind itself it turn on/off if when Shane Ryan said so.
Thank you, too! Actually, physics isn't even required to figure out that something's fishy. The fact alone that the trick works anywhere, not just at haunted locations, proves that the tool is creating false positives and that the effect is normal, not paranormal, by definition. It seems that ghost hunters believing in flashlight-chat have never tested it outside haunted places.
awesome breakdown. Great that you can put this experiment out there so the paranormal community can educate itself . ;)
Shane, drop the accent, i know it's you. Nice try.
I love ghost investigation videos. It always helps me be open to analyze all footage without bias. Debunk everything, and what cannot be explained it truly what we are looking for.
Burkhard, this is an EXCELLENT video. Thank you for making/sharing it. I do wish that folks who watch and enjoy such ghost hunting shows would take the time to understand the physics of how things work and recognize that much of what is claimed to be "paranormal" is, quite clearly, just plain "normal". Your clear and concise explanation of how this trick works was refreshing and easy to understand! Thank you!
okay let me first start by saying that when i watch this on Ghost Hunters or some other show, i think it was total crap. We went to Waverly Hills just a few days ago, and tried this 'trick' with the flashlight. We sat in a dark room, and started asking questions. the light came on. So then we stop asking questions, the light never came back on. only when we asked the questions, did it light up. Now this could be a coincidence, but still, it seems like the same coincidence as winning the lotto..
So I'm trying to debunk my wife's theory that she is talking to ghosts right now with the same flashlight. 6 minutes into the video the light hasn't gotten off. She then asked the spirit to turn the light on for her and it went on a couple seconds later. I'm running out of ideas to explain it with science and she is becoming more stubborn that she is communicating with spirits
Lol your wife is me and you’re my husband, this had me laughing!
I know this is 10 years ago video and I do appreciate your explanation, I just have to say, I’m all about debunking, even being an avid ghost hunter myself. I took my flashlight to the most haunted cemetery in Texas, and flashlight and rempod went on at the same exact time, and always on command when asking questions such as turn on pls turn off… however!!! We go to another location (not haunted,) and the flashlight although on, never went off!!! Idk how to explain that? /: I’m so conflicted… I’ll continue doing my own research and see what I find! Again, thanks for the video! I appreciate the dedication you made. ☺️
hmm that what i see on several ghost hunt video, on/off on command , haha the mystery of life
And I'm not saying your theory is not correct, the lights would go on and off within the same amount of time.
I'm just saying about doing a hunt I've seen the flashlights sit idle for minutes without any activity and then when questions being imposed upon the entities the activity on the flashlights is major.
This is fascinating. Amazing experiment, and explanation.
This is the best scientific explanation I've seen yet! I would love to get your permission to host this on my website and share this on other sites.
On buzzfeed unsolved the flashlight stays lit and it turn off when Shane and Ryan said so it's not blinking like that. It takes too long to turn on and turned off stays lit and at Shane and ryans command.this trick turned the flashlight on/off 3 times in 5 seconds. like the flashlight has mind itself it turn on/off if when Shane Ryan said so.
@@anasensierra8366 They were controlling it
@@sbdevelopment8968 When Shane and Ryan order it to turn on/off it flickers like it was fading like a dying flashlight. If it was being controlled it will straight turned on/off immediately plus the reactions are so legit like if someone doesn't believe in paranormal finally believes.
@@anasensierra8366 Nope
Wow, that was the clearest, cleanest mind I've experienced in a LONG time... Aaaaahhhhh.
The conversion efficiency of an incandescent light bulb is ~5%. For a flashlight LED, it's about 15%-25%. This means that the former dissipates 95% of the energy fed into it as heat, whereas it's 75%-85% for LEDs. So LEDs do actually dissipate most of the energy as heat, just as incandescent bulbs. They are just much brighter at that, that's all. Regarding stories: Unless it's a well researched case which has published documentation, I can't say anything about it. It's just a story.
Well done! Well done! Its unfortunate that the people relying on tool and methods for ghost investigations, seem to leap from assumption to absolute confidence it is valid without ever looking for other explanations. Its great to see someone do this work for them to put these wild claims to rest.
But it was not indicated on the podcast if the flashlights were "warmed" ahead of time as was necessary for the flashing trick. Also, what was said about the sequence of time between flashes. His test showed a pretty regular rhythm of flashes. No co incidence with this idea here- and I'm still going to try the flashlight trick at home with more than 1 flashlight.
Thank you for doing this video! I have always thought that this could be the case, but was too lazy to prove it. Debunked!
this is completely different to what Buzzfeeds video entailed though. They asked a question and then after asking the question the light went on. Then askling another question the light went off. The timing was spot on and they only got the flashlight to turn off when they asked it to turn off. I'm not saying that its a good explanation but the strangeness of the video doesnt line up with the details in this video.
But in their videos the flashlight rarely turns on/off immediately when they ask a question. The flashlight usually turns on/off several seconds later and more often than not doesn't do anything at all. Of course it might look like a "ghost" answered their question when it coincidentally turns on/off just as they ask a question. It the law of "close enough" that makes you think you're talking to a ghost if it turns on 5 seconds after they've asked the "ghost" something.
Hell, you might be able to guesstimate when the flashlight will turn on/off again by calculating some average time between states. Then you just ask a question at about the right time. And they have the benefit of editing the footage. You just cut out all the times you don't get an "answer" if you try it for like 30 minutes.
In all honesty the flashlight and spiritbox are terrible evidence. 1 in a 100 times they might get something that just happens to fit with what they're looking for. If the answer is "close enough" you just treat it as empirical evidence. Every other time you get nothing suddenly doesn't count.
This is a good video, but it should be noted that the paranormal investigators that use this consider only repeated, direct and consistent responses as valid interactions. Or at least they should.
I tried this flashlight trick, and the spirit slapped the flashlight across the dash and told me off via class A EVP (Will gladly supply) on two sepetate occasions. The third time I tried it, the flash of my new android burnt out. I have no idea why it makes them so angry. Anyone else have any experiences like this?
Thank you Sir for your excellent research and video skills! I was going to run an identical experiment and subsequent video but I no longer have to do so thanks to your work. Thank you!
You should still do a video! The more experiments on something, the better the consistency and confirmation. Changing some variables could help mix things up!
On buzzfeed unsolved the flashlight stays lit and it turn off when Shane and Ryan said so it's not blinking like that. It takes too long to turn on and turned off stays lit and at Shane and ryans command.this trick turned the flashlight on/off 3 times in 5 seconds. like the flashlight has mind itself it turn on/off if when Shane Ryan said so.
This is a great video. However not everyone uses this type of flashlight and the people using it doesn't wait for 'eventually' it to come on or off. I have seen this done where it ONLY came on when a question is directly asked and it has turned off on command. If you have to wait for a response for very long, it isn't working in the paranormal way.
This is one of the best videos I've seen of all time. You methods and explanation are amazing,
I hope you don't mind, but I've published this on the Paranormal Research Association of Boston's Blog
Excellent research! What I liked especially was that the detail of why the light stayed on or off for prolonged periods was researched, even after the basic mechanism was apparent. The explanations for many apparently paranormal phenomena is not always simple but if left only half explained it leaves room for doubt. Saying orbs are dust, for instance, while true is only part of the story and allows people to say say their orbs are 'different'.
If the heat thing is true, Please explain how the same results of the light turning on and off happen with an LED model mag light, as they do not get hot and use very low current. Thanks
If a ghost is really doing it, get them to cycle through the first 10 prime numbers
.
What if the ghost is bad at math? That's just rude.
I saw this in action for the first time last night. It was an impressive "trick". Nice to see it explained. Also with your accent it sounds like you are saying "fleshlight. Hilarious. Keep up the good work!
Well, I'm not saying that the world is devoid of mystery. But I don't take your word for it. It's easy to make claims.
Very thorough explanation as to how this particular Mini Maglite flashlight's materials and design, can produce on-off cycling due to thermal expansion-contraction properties of the flashlight's reflector and how the reflector interacts with other flashlight components.
Great explanation, Thanks. I actually watched the whole thing. It was really interesting and thorough. It would have been great if you ended the video with one of those screaming ghost faces that flash on the screen and scare the heck out of people.
That was awesome. Thank you for such a great explanation
one of its own kind of videos. Kudos
….this is why some ACTUAL paranormal investigations have little to nothing because information like this just helps out the community! It’ll get people to stop being lazy and do an actual investigation. Connect with the spirits. Blessed be! 😊
But it was not indicated on the podcast if the flashlights were "warmed" ahead of time as was necessary for the flashing trick. Also, what was said about the sequence of time between flashes. His test showed a pretty regular rhythm of flashes. No co incidence with this idea here- and I'm still going to try the flashlight trick at home with more than 1 flashlight.
I just watched the whole thing, felt like he just solved the whole mystery of the Big Bang!!!
No really, with his explanation of expanding/ contracting mechanism now I know!!! We're all living in a flashlight!! A fking flashlight!!!!
This is very impressive, excellent indepth video, and explanation!!
Vicki
Basically the pop is a spark which heats and expands and welds a contact point to turn it on, but I hear no noise when it turns off, the weld is pulled and breaks the weld when it contracts.
I've been searching for this video for a few months. I viewed it 10 years ago. Now, let's get the idea that preprogrammed ghost phone apps are just as much BS. thanks for this superb demonstration.
Your sceptic kung fu dwarfs that of millions. My hat off to you Sir - wonderful job!
Excellent research and presentation, thank you.
Such a fantastic video. Very thorough!
to finish what happened... so we would sit like 5 min not say anything, no light. 10 min. no light. as SOON as we asked a question, light comes on. If we sat there and said nothing for that EXACT second, would the light have come on anyway? I have no idea, but it NEVER came on just by ramdom when we were not speaking. ONLY when we asked questions. I asked if it could make a noise. there was a sharp BOOM from down the hall, I asked if that was it making the noise, the light came on.
I know it really depends on that and yeah. One question is,if you're talking about the heat that expands and makes contact with the metal. Then it is wrong,why? It tooked awhile for the plastic to be heated right? How come turning on and off ,awhile the heat wouldn't build up to 35C degress that you have shown. Somehow this vid isn't crap,but still it does show some important point. Do you know that there's psychic things that you can't explain with mere science? poltergeist increase temp of obj
There are 3 Watt LEDs for the Mini Maglite. These get just as hot and use just as much current as the incandescent bulbs.
what still confuses me is that i don’t have a warm up period and it still turns on and off on command. also, we had a rem pod set up near to it and as the torch went off, so would the rem pod on the same table
Sam and Colby
Oh my goddddd 😂
Great job man! Who would've thought there were little explosions and welds going on in there? It just goes to show that scientific explanations are always better than supernatural positing; I mean, explanations like this actually make you feel like you understand what's going on.
The energy of the battery being in close proximity of the conducting piece of metal will still produce enough energy to light the bulb for a few moments.
so I'm not saying that this whole video is crap, I'm just saying that maybe not everything can be explained so easily. if the light came on when we were just sitting there, then I would have been like, yeah, this is dumb, but never once did it come on by just us being quiet. ONLY when we asked it questions, then it instantly came on, then go off. No other time did this happen, and we were down there for about an hour or longer.
I knew it!! Haha. I knew there was a trick!!
Hi everyone
Thanks for making this debunking video and in great detail to...thanks :)
he hasn't even worked out what that click is and is ignoring a few aspects of basic heat versus expansion rules in basic science
Guten tag, I am a paranormal investigator who likes to balance spiritual with science. What you're presenting here makes sense, except I have 2 challenges to it: you mention that it takes a bit of time for this contact to be made, I did an investigation last week where the flashlight had been off and untouched for hours. When I began speaking to the entity it lit up right away, in less than a minute. Also, surely you're not actually saying in your comment below that LEDs run the same temperature
your research on the topic is Just amazing
very thorough! well done man!
Der deutsch-englisch dialekt ist immer geil anzuhören XD
I can understand this rationale. But sometimes it happens only in direct answer to questions. Admittedly, there are more "normal" explanations than paranormal.ones. That's why we try new approaches in paranormal research because we want to try and capture hard scientific proof of it.
I have to agree with some of the previous posters. Just less than a month ago we were investigating a location where we used a flashlight with room temps at 62 degrees. The flashlight was placed in play dough facing straight up. The flashlight was not used prior to placement and was on to be set no longer then 3 seconds. It took nearly an hour before it came on for the first time. Although I believe that 90% of the time the flashlight is explainable, and your tests gives an excellent understanding of how and why, it does completely remove the possibility of something paranormal.
While an initial heat-up phase makes the trick work reliably, it is not the only possible cause for the light turning on initially. Vibrations in the room could be the reason. Also, the interior parts of the FL are rubbing on the FL's barrel, which makes them move not smoothly but in microscopic jumps ("slip-stick motion"). Hence it could be that you built up a tiny tension inside the FL as, for example, the batteries are sticking to the barrel, and after some time that tension is released in a small movement causing contact to be made.
Classic skepticism.
Wow man, amazing how you took the time.
Radiolab brought me here.
It's not a Lab though.
Then how do you explain them going on and off on command. I put the same flash lights on in my home just like I would in our investigation and they did not turn on at all. I set them on the table just like I would for our investigation and like I said, they did not turn on at all.
Freaking brilliant! Love this!
The only thing he proved is that his home is haunted.
What flashlight is that
Amazing video. I bet you could write a paper on this and publish in a scientific journal. Thanks for exposing the bull shut
damn why is there such a omnious music in the beginning ? :D
Splendidly explained!
This so great, thanks!
If you want to work out what the "click " is I suggest you get a small AM radio and place it near to flash light while it is turned onto a channel that has no reception or voice. Then adjust the flash light to that same point and listen to the effect on the radio. I know exactly what that click is but I`ll leave that to you to work out with the radio. If you can.
I already worked that out and explained it in the video. The click comes from a tiny shock wave caused by the rapid expansion from heat at the point of contact. It's audible without electric aid and is not to be confused with electromagnetic interference audible on an AM radio when switching on an electric device.
I have two maglights, one has the original light bulb, the second has a LED light mod. I used a nocontact thermometer the incandescent bulb has a temp of 73° off room temp, on it has a temp of 113°the LED light 73° off, 78° on.
But have had some of the same response while ghost hunting using the same lights at the same time. But using the same light in a place i know no paranormal activity to be and get very little to no response.
Thank you for this uploader
Impressive vid...
When I was young, I used to make our flashlight do this all the time because it was so interesting. I always wondered exactly how it happened. (I had a super simplisptic theory involving batteries, lol) Back then, I never knew it was used in paranormal stuff. When I began to see those shows I was irritated. I believe in ghosts, and have even lived in haunted places, but thought this communication method certainly was just because of the flashlight's construction. Vindication!
Can you explain how it works sometimes? And other times nothing will happen?
If the warmup is sufficient and the flashlight head is in the right position, it works, otherwise not.
Kind of want to buy one of these just to mess with my friends that believe in ghosts >:)
They dare us it again and everyone fall for it :D
WOW and i soooo believed all the time that my favorite tv program did the flashlight trick, now i know they are all fakes ghost answers. GH u got me good!
Thank you very much verklagekasper, no more GH programs.
Check out Steve Huff at Huff Paranormal. This guy doesn't bullshit about this stuff. Before you write him off and start doubting the guy, do some research on him.
It's not just about a loose contact, for all we know the flashlight could have been modified to be controlled remotely. This show is on a huge network, they have the money to make anything possible.
yes that all may be true. but what if a ghost does not have the physical strength to manually turn the flash light on. that would require the ghost to pick it up and manipulate it. but lets say if the contact connections are manipulated by a real person and all the spirit has to do is use its energy to make the contact between the power source and lite it up. they say spirits have energy so i thought i would just think so mabey iam wrong,
What kind of flashlight did you use
+Mary Sawicki Watch again and pay attention. He tells you exactly the brand and model.
The ghost was tryna speak to you but you ghosted it 🥲🥲
also the possibility of someone rigged it to on/off on command for their ghost hunt , hmmmm...............
fuckin science, people
Hey I tryed it
SCIENCE!!!
This is what kills me about most "ghost hunting" groups out there. They claim to use "scientific methods" but know nothing of science. In all fairness I run a paranormal group but I have a whole hell of a lot more common sense than to buy into this being paranormal.
AgileMJOLNIR
>run a paranormal group
>have common sense
I use the traditional ones to hunts spirits....
I don't know man, using fritting as an explanation isr kind of reaching there. I do watch someone though that works with beading so I asked their opinion. If I get a response I will tell you what he said. Interesting theory though.
Yet dummies still use the twist flashlight to "communicate" with spirits in 2022...
ahh kay brah
so is fake?? lol
fleshlight
Been telling people this method is bogus thanks for confirming I was going to conduct tests but guess I dont. LOL alot of recreational groups going to hate you.
Im only here from buzzfeed unsolved
Yeah having a pictorial representation looks good and may fool many dimwits in these comments but you`re saying that unscrewing the head makes contact while also having spring tension applied from the base of the battery compartment. The action you describe requires a Negative Coefficient of Expansion " while the spring is made of nickel and chrome coated steel and continually applies tension on the batteries which in turn prevents the head from moving backwards as you claim. Current going through the steel heats up that steel spring a few degrees then applies more tension to the batteries which then lifts the head to make a BETTER contact.
I`ve seen a bunch of these bunking videos and virtually all of them relies on a NCoE when the effect of heating the spring creates a *Positive Coefficient of Expansion* This is basic science that some of my experiences as a Technical Electronics Serviceman has relied upon to do my job *properly*
Another variation uses 2 dissimilar metals to cause shape variance as in a bi-metallic strip used for mechanical temperature regulation in an electrical/electronic circuit..
Here`s a link. It might be wiki but it IS correct.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_expansion
Nope. The spring does not heat up by "a few degrees". More like 0.1 degrees, if at all. And even if it heated up more and expanded more, that would not mean that its push on the batteries would be greater than the push of the expanding reflector from the opposite direction. It's a spring, after all. The force of the push is not fully determined by the expansion coefficient of the material but it also largely depends on the shape of the body. You know, basic science and stuff.
poe's law.
if not, go perform the experiment yourself
People really try to talk to ghosts with a flashlight? I wish I had so much time in the world to be so amazingly stupid as to do things like that.
+Kona jinx well u sure have enough time to watch youtube videos and make comments... mr busy
I'm not convinced that this works i had a flashlight flicker off and on only at the questions that I asked last night and the flashlight flickerd off only to the questions that I asked and it is one that works with a light bulb not batteries....
All flashlights have both a light bulb (or LED) AND batteries. A flashlight with either just a bulb or just batteries wouldn't work, both are needed.
BS.
...as incandescent, are you? It's a simple and known fact that LEDs are much cooler, the coolest in fact.