Are full or empty beer bottles sturdier and does their fracture-threshold suffice to break the human skull?

Bolliger, Stephan; Ross, Steffen; Oesterhelweg, Lars; Thali, Michael; Kneubühl, Beat P. (2009). Are full or empty beer bottles sturdier and does their fracture-threshold suffice to break the human skull? Journal of forensic and legal medicine, 16(3), pp. 138-142. Oxford: Elsevier 10.1016/j.jflm.2008.07.013

[img] Text
1-s2.0-S1752928X08001728-main.pdf - Published Version
Restricted to registered users only
Available under License Publisher holds Copyright.

Download (469kB)

Beer bottles are often used in physical disputes. If the bottles break, they may give rise to sharp trauma. However, if the bottles remain intact, they may cause blunt injuries. In order to investigate whether full or empty standard half-litre beer bottles are sturdier and if the necessary breaking energy surpasses the minimum fracture-threshold of the human skull, we tested the fracture properties of such beer bottles in a drop-tower. Full bottles broke at 30 J impact energy, empty bottles at 40 J. These breaking energies surpass the minimum fracture-threshold of the human neurocranium. Beer bottles may therefore fracture the human skull and therefore serve as dangerous instruments in a physical dispute.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

04 Faculty of Medicine > Service Sector > Institute of Legal Medicine
04 Faculty of Medicine > Service Sector > Institute of Legal Medicine > Forensic Medicine
04 Faculty of Medicine > Service Sector > Institute of Legal Medicine > Forensic Imaging

UniBE Contributor:

Bolliger, Stephan, Ross, Steffen, Thali, Michael, Kneubühl, Beat P.

Subjects:

600 Technology > 610 Medicine & health

ISSN:

1752-928X

ISBN:

19239964

Publisher:

Elsevier

Language:

English

Submitter:

Factscience Import

Date Deposited:

04 Oct 2013 15:04

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 14:19

Publisher DOI:

10.1016/j.jflm.2008.07.013

PubMed ID:

19239964

Web of Science ID:

000207858200007

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.27931

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/27931 (FactScience: 113788)

Actions (login required)

Edit item Edit item
Provide Feedback