Rigor Mortis

[katatonic]

Ok, so rigor mortis manifests after 3 hours, lasting around 72 hours. (according to professor wikipedia)

My question is, how stiff does the body actually become?

Could somebody arrange the body to stand up and essentially balance on its own?

Would that be possible?

[Palmfrond]

There's quite a bit of variation on the timing of rigor mortis, depending on temperature and various other factors. They get very stiff - as if frozen - but to stand up, they'd have to be very carefully positioned before stiffening, and the dead body obviously would have no sense of balance.

[C.M. Daniels]

They get stiff enough you could practically drive nails with them.

You might be able to lean someone up against a wall.

[Fenika]

According to a recent episode of CSI, yes.

[kristie911]

Really, really stiff. It's actually very creepy.

[beezle]

According to a recent episode of CSI, yes.

Ehhh... CSI doesn't cut it for me. I've seen too much pseudoscience in it. I'll wait for the Mythbusters special on human decomp.

[beezle]

And yeah, pretty stiff. I saw a drowning victim pulled from a creek, laid out stiff as a board, his arms stuck out in front perpendicular to his body, like he was sleepwalking.

[NeuroFizz]

Agree with all above, but I wouldn't leave it like that for long. As decomposition continues, the tissue breaks down and the stiffness decreases, and it doesn't have to decrease all over to cause the stiff to tumble. Gravity plus the weight of a human body (and its high center of gravity) = instability. And hopefully, the feet would be properly spread to allow a reasonable base, and the knees not bent too much, and, and...

Ever try to stand one of those McDonald's happy meal action figure toys when one of the legs wasn't molded quite level with the other? Or maybe one of those old plastic army men?

[GhostAuthor]

Yep, just as everyone else said, very stiff. However, you if you lean the body against a wall or some other support it would stay thus eliminating the instability (like neuro pointed out).
Also, rigor mortis goes in stages. Body will become stiff for several hours then limp for a few then stiff again. It really is an odd process.

[RJK]

I attended an autopsy where the ME's had to put all their weight on the DB's arms to straighten them out, and the arms still snapped back when they let go. They resorted to cutting the tendons to get the arms to the sides of the body.

Rigor means what it says, the body is rigid.