Finding water with a dividing stick?

Question

Who remembers those cartoons where the guy would be walking around a desert with a forked stick and it would suddenly bend upwards when water was underneath. Does this happen at all in real life, and if so, how?

Answer 1

yes they work in the hands of someone with that skill.  There have even been reports of people finding oil with divining rods

Answer 2

Yes it does and they are called divining sticks.

Answer 3

Yes they do work,as your first answerer said, and sometimes they are used today where water is scarce to find new places where a new well can be excavated

Answer 4

No, it doesn't happen, though that doesn't stop people claiming they can do it. It's called dowsing or water divining, and sometimes it uses forked sticks, sometimes wire rods, sometimes pendulums, and some dowsers even claim they can do it with no equipment at all. Despite numerous scientific experiments testing the ability of self-proclaimed diviners to detect water, no evidence has ever emerged demonstrating the effect is real.

Answer 5

Yes indeed there are 'reports' of this. They're all fake. There is no such thing as divining.

One TV programme a few years ago took a load of so-called diviners and tried to get them to prove their skills. They all failed.

Answer 6

You can definitly make this work with two copper welding rods. Bend about four inches over to form a handle, hold one in each hand very loosely and walk forwards , when you cross over a drain pipe or sewer the rods will turn inwards and cross oneanother, telling you there is water underneath.

Answer 7

I'll have to agree with winkie 69.

As far as anything 'out of the ordinary' is concerned, I would definitely fall into the 'sceptical' category. However years ago working in the demolition industry, the conversation got round to water divining, and to cut a long story short, we decided to try it for ourselves.

  The area we were working in had been an old gas works, and there was a concrete road running for about 80 to 100 meters between what had been processing and pump buildings.Unbelievably, using welding (brazing) rods, 3 out of 6 people to try it (me included) got the rods to turn in over at the same places on the road, presumably where there were underground pipes

Before anyone mentions it, we did it one at a time, and after the first time, the next in line was accompanied by the previous guy.

Not exactly scientific I know, but near enough to make you think.

Oh! and btw I have done it several times since, usually if it comes into the conversation, and it still appears to work for about 50% of people.

As I have never really worked with 'the fairer s*x', I am unable to say if this is 'male dominated'    :-)

Answer 8

Only works in cartoons or in the presence of the simple-minded.

I see you already figured out that it's "magic"...Have a good one!