A fun review of content rated satire.
(Image courtesy of fpcp.net.)
(Please understand that I am not mocking Presbyterians—in fact, I am pretty motionless while I worship, too.)
Claim: Presbyterians remain so motionless while worshiping that motion-activated lights will turn off.
Rating: UNPROVEN/LIKELY FALSE
Explanation: On October 17, 2016, the Christian satire site The Babylon Bee released at story titled, "Motion-Activated Lights Turn Off During Presbyterian Worship Service". When I read it, I wondered if that was possible.
First off, I watched this video of a Presbyterian congregation worshiping. Note how still they are.
Then I stood in front of a motion-activated light for several minutes, swaying only the tiniest bit. The light did not turn off. I later repeated it, this time sitting in a chair. The light stayed lit.
Then I tried to sneak by the light without turning it on, inching along very slowly. In both the first and second times I tried, at first it didn't respond, but after half a minute of creeping, once I reached a certain side, it lit up.
I then tried to find out if the side I had crept by was a sensor blind spot by waving a toy sword next to it. It did not turn on. When I waved it past the other part, it lit up, suggesting the side is a sensor blind spot. This explains the apparent insensitivity of the sensor in my second experiment.
The problem with my sensor experiments is that not all motion-activated lights are the same—the church might have a different model.
According to this source and this one, some motion sensors cannot detect movement if it is slow enough. So perhaps the Bee's claim is possible, but not likely.
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