Math question

[Lochar]

About how many cubic feet is the average Medium sized creature? I wanna know if I can fit a body into a secret chest.

[Terraspaz]

Lets say the average human (medium creature) is about 5.5 feet tall. Give 'em 9 " depth (.75 feet) and 2 feet of width.

If I did that right, it comes out to 8.25 cubic feet. Rough guess.

[Lochar]

Cheers. Spellcaster ghost hides his body in a secret chest, and only has to summon the chest back once every 60 days to recast the spell, or just loose the damned thing. Ghostly equipment can't be taken from your body, ergo you never lose it!

[Terraspaz]

I gather the body fits, then?

[Lochar]

The chest can contain up to 1 cubic foot of material per caster level (regardless of the chest’s actual size, which is about 3 feet by 2 feet by 2 feet)

I'm dumping the body!

[Charity]

Mark some graduations on the side of your bath, half fill it with water ... and get in.
eureka!

[Jayabalard]

Lets say the average human (medium creature) is about 5.5 feet tall. Give 'em 9 " depth (.75 feet) and 2 feet of width.

If I did that right, it comes out to 8.25 cubic feet. Rough guess.

that's a fairly bad approximation for a number of reasons, primarily: the estimates for depth and width are measures at the widest parts of the body, and most of the body isn't that wide. You'd want to use the average depth and average width, which are both each around half of what you've estimated. if you do that, that would cut your answer by a factor of 4 (1/2 * 1/2) or somewhere around 2.06 cubic feet.

Quick google gives this article:

1a.) A very good first approximation to your question is to simply find the average human mass (easy enough to weigh) and divide by 0.001 kg/cm^3.

1b.) Lets take me for example, I am about 2.80 ft^3.

What you're really looking for though, is how much space a body will take up, which isn't the same thing as the volume unless you're going to convert the body into pate.

[Tokiko Mima]

What you're really looking for though, is how much space a body will take up, which isn't the same thing as the volume unless you're going to convert the body into paste.

STOP GIVING PEOPLE IDEAS, JAYABALARD!

[mikeejimbo]

Mark some graduations on the side of your bath, half fill it with water ... and get in.
eureka!

Hahaha, I love this. "Eureka!"

Just making sure you knew that someone got it.

[Dr Bwaa]

What you're really looking for though, is how much space a body will take up, which isn't the same thing as the volume unless you're going to convert the body into pate.

The secret chest says only that it holds one cubic foot/caster level, regardless of the actual volume of the chest. I have to assume that it therefore doesn't matter the actual dimensions of the thing involved in storage (I thought of this too).

Also, Jayabalard has about the same approximation as I'd use (either way, it still works out well for the OP).

[Chronos]

lordhenry4000, I love your sig. It gives me a warm fuzzy feeling every time I see someone correctly applying Newton's Laws.

While we're on the subject of volumes of extradimensional storage spaces, if a storage space has a weight limit (like Bags of Holding or [Heward's] Handy Haversack), the volume limit is almost never relevant. The weight and volume limits for most items are set such that an object would need a density of about a tenth that of water for the volume limit to kick in before the weight, so as long as you're not lugging around balsa wood statues, it doesn't matter.

[Citizen Joe]

The human body is slightly buoyant, so slightly less dense than water. Water is about 62 lbs per cubic foot. So a good rule of thumb is about 1 cubic foot per 60 pounds of weight of a naked human. I suspect dwarves are denser than water, so use about 65-70 lbs per cubic foot.

I've seen some yogis fold themselves into a 17" box... so that's about 2.83 cubic feet.

[Collin152]

I've seen some yogis fold themselves into a 17" box... so that's about 2.83 cubic feet.

Rigor Mortis.
That corpse aint folding any which way.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

Rigor Mortis.
That corpse aint folding any which way.

Battle Axe. Rigor just became irrelevant.

[Collin152]

Battle Axe. Rigor just became irrelevant.

Disintegrate. All these statistics are irrelevant.
The axe won't help the body wear equipment for the ghost to use.