# How do dowsing rods work? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 3, 2014, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-dowsing-rods-work/682710 "2014-03-03T00:00:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-dowsing-rods-work/682710/121 "2014-03-05T23:18:46Z")
> [@Hagrid](#): > > It was not my intention to infer that it was MY theory…I have done a little reading around the subject, over several years off and on, and have formed the opinion that IF dowsing has a scientific basis, it is likely to be found by exploring that avenue. No, it isn’t, and frankly I doubt you’ve read much or if you have you’ve biased towards woo writings rather than sceptical or scientific writings. If you had you would know that the standard way of testing dowsers involves an “open” and a closed test. In the “open” test the dowser is told which hidden pipe has the flowing water, precisely to check if their powers are working in the given setup. They basically invariably report that their powers _are_ working at that point. Yet in the closed test when they don’t know which pipe has the flowing water, they fail. Ergo it isn’t magnetism, or smell, or anything of that nature. If it was, their powers would work or not work in a test whether they knew where the water was flowing or not. Their powers work in tests only when they know where the water is. And in the field their powers “work” because it doesn’t matter what they do, there’s water pretty much everywhere underground anyway. There is no mysterious issue here. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-dowsing-rods-work/682710/122 "2014-03-05T23:29:35Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > Somebody with a lot of fun money could easily test for this. Instead of a completely synthetic test arrangement (a la JREF), pick a large undeveloped field out in the real world. Drill a shitload of wells at 10-foot intervals on a grid, and record how many of them hit water (for this to be a truly useful test, the percentage should be low). cap them all, then bring in a dowser and ask him to identify a well that has water in it. Repeat with as many dowsers as you can find. If 80% of the wells have water, and the dowsers achieve an 80% success rate, then they’re useless. If 10% of the wells have water and the dowsers achieve an 80% success rate, then maybe there’s something worth investigating further. Afterall, this was a real field with real groundwater, and all the expected environmental cues. > > If there’s concern about the drilling of the grid of wells somehow disturbing the site, then just mark the drilling spots with wooden stakes, and then have all the dowsers come and do their thing _before_ the grid of wells is drilled. > > If there’s concern about the presence of wooden stakes (and the awareness of this being an experiment) screwing up the dowser’s mental state, then don’t tell them what’s going on. Just invite them out to the unmolested field, one at a time, and ask them for their dowsing-based recommendation on where and how deep to drill. Record all their answers, then lay out the grid, and drill, baby, drill. > > Unless/until this test is done, I’ll stick with the results of earlier controlled experiments which have shown that dowsing does not have a success rate that is better than chance. It’s not practical, might well give results that favoured dowsers (due to lack of ability to control) and wouldn’t prove anything to a degree that would convince anyone. Firstly, and I just can’t say this enough, **there’s water almost everywhere underground**. So the percentage wouldn’t be low it would be probably 100%. Secondly, if you chose an area with highly varied surface topography that might well give you better variability in the degree to which underground water could be found at various sites across your test area. But _it would also give clues to experienced dowsers as to where the underground water was_ and would probably result in them doing quite well in the test. Thirdly, if you chose a perfectly flat featureless plain, so that dowsers got no clues, it is highly unlikely there would be much variability in underground water across the site. More likely there would be (or not be) a single relatively uniform aquifer across the whole site. Fourthly you could do a lot of pre-drilling across a lot of sites to find a miracle location where there were no surface features to give clues to dowsers but high variability in underground water (at a cost of probably many tens of millions of dollars) but if you pre-drill it is almost a certainty that dowsers who fail will say it was because your pre-drilling affected the vibrations/magnetism/chi/ley lines blah de blah de blah. I don’t think controlled testing of dowsing under real world conditions is practical. ---
**Author:** ![carlb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carlb/32/5930_2.png) [@carlb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carlb)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-dowsing-rods-work/682710/123 "2014-03-06T15:35:15Z")
Just to throw one more anecdote out there - In the process of busting out my old concrete driveway, the contractor broke one of the grey water pipes that supplies the sprinkler system in my yard. We searched and searched, and couldn’t find the shut-off valve. Called the HOA, and their maintenance guy came out. He couldn’t find it either. He called one of the local County water guys, who came out shortly afterward. He pointed out markings on the curb which indicated where the piping came in from the larger supply piping, and using this as a guide, he started probing the ground to find the valve box. No dice. He then pulls out a couple of dowsing rods and starts walking around the yard, where the rods would periodically cross. I looked at my concrete guy, and we both rolled our eyes. But, we had no luck finding the valve, so I figured I’d leave well enough alone. He never did find the valve. Took a second guy with actual instruments to find it, in a spot the first guy had walked over many times with his dowsing rods. ---
**Author:** ![RedSwinglineOne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a9adbd/32.png) [@RedSwinglineOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedSwinglineOne)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-dowsing-rods-work/682710/124 "2014-03-06T21:48:20Z")
Have we forgotten this one already? [Company sells dowsing rods for use as bomb detectors](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=538746) [Iraq Swears by Bomb Detector U.S. Sees as Useless](http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/04/world/middleeast/04sensors.html?_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss&) ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-dowsing-rods-work/682710/125 "2014-03-06T21:51:39Z")
I think the first thing I ever posted to the SDMB was about my experience with dowsing. I got beat up over it. So here I go again. I tried it at my dad’s house holding 2 short pieces of hollow pipe vertically, with L-shaped rods in them, so the rods could turn freely. He had me walk his property to see if I could find the water lines. The rods pointed forward horizontally and they were parallel. I slowly walked around and at one point the rods crossed, and that was indeed where the water line was. What surprised me was how strongly the rods pulled when I reached that point, it was a weird sensation. Whether the explanation is dowsing works or it was my own subconscious, it was an impressive force. So I know I will get refuted, but it is fun to try even if you don’t believe in it. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-dowsing-rods-work/682710/126 "2014-03-06T22:03:46Z")
> [@control-z](#): > > I think the first thing I ever posted to the SDMB was about my experience with dowsing. I got beat up over it. So here I go again. I tried it at my dad’s house holding 2 short pieces of hollow pipe vertically, with L-shaped rods in them, so the rods could turn freely. He had me walk his property to see if I could find the water lines. The rods pointed forward horizontally and they were parallel. I slowly walked around and at one point the rods crossed, and that was indeed where the water line was. What surprised me was how strongly the rods pulled when I reached that point, it was a weird sensation. Whether the explanation is dowsing works or it was my own subconscious, it was an impressive force. Yes, gravity can be an impressive force. It even makes the world go 'round. Your rods were tilted very slightly in one direction and gravity did the rest. Because of the length of the rods, any hand movement was exaggerated. The rods were actually telling you which way your hand was tilted; you were holding a _tilt meter._ You can do the same thing by mounting rods on a support that can tilt in any direction. A small tilt causes a large movement. No human contact is needed; you could tilt the mechanism by a rope or a magnet. Conversely, mount rods on a rigid support and move a jug of water near them and they will not move at all unless there is an air current. You show me where you want hand-held rods to point and I’ll make them do so with so slight a hand movement that you can’t detect it. It’s simple weight and balance and nothing more. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-dowsing-rods-work/682710/127 "2014-03-06T22:39:07Z")
> [@control-z](#): > > Whether the explanation is dowsing works or it was my own subconscious, it was an impressive force. The thing is, once you understand the ideomotor effect and how your dowsing rods are constructed, it’s really not that impressive. It’s easily demonstrate and repeatable. The only question becomes what caused you to make the rods signal at that point, and the most likely answer is that you were responding to queues from your dad. You were a [Clever Hans](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clever_Hans). ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-dowsing-rods-work/682710/128 "2014-03-06T22:59:33Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Yes, gravity can be an impressive force. It even makes the world go 'round. Sorry, what? (unless you mean ‘round’ as in _spherical_) ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Mondegreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/91b2a8/32.png) [@Lord\_Mondegreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Mondegreen)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-dowsing-rods-work/682710/129 "2014-03-06T23:38:58Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Sorry, what? (unless you mean ‘round’ as in _spherical_) Perhaps he meant it makes the Earth go 'round … the Sun. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![SiXSwordS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@SiXSwordS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SiXSwordS)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-dowsing-rods-work/682710/130 "2014-03-06T23:43:49Z")
> [@control-z](#): > > I know I will get refuted **grammar nazi** _ **Be** _ refuted. You know you will _ **BE** _ refuted. And _ **HOW** _ did you foresee this refutation? **CHURCH LADY** Divination? **/CHURCH LADY** ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-dowsing-rods-work/682710/131 "2014-03-07T00:04:10Z")
> [@SiXSwordS](#): > > I appreciate your commentary. > > As for the theory, I would like to see a test of Pigeons, or Sharks or somesuch animal that can be demonstrated to have [Magnetic Sense](http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/magsense/ms.html) to see if _they_ can accomplish the claimed feats. **Sharkgeon: Magnetic Sense** , coming soon to Syfy. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-dowsing-rods-work/682710/132 "2014-03-07T01:15:41Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Yes, gravity can be an impressive force. It even makes the world go 'round. > [@Mangetout](#): > > Sorry, what? (unless you mean ‘round’ as in _spherical_) > [@Lord\_Mondegreen](#): > > Perhaps he meant it makes the Earth go 'round … the Sun. 🙂 I guess I was too clever for Mangetout. _Around_, minus the “a”, substituting an apostrophe to indicate the missing letter, becomes _'round,_ and the Earth does go around the Sun. It was also a clever :dubious: use of the word “round” to refer to the (approximately) spherical shape of our Earthly globe, which is held together by gravity. It all comes round to gravity, i.e., the Earth sucks. ---
**Author:** ![SiXSwordS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@SiXSwordS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SiXSwordS)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-dowsing-rods-work/682710/133 "2014-03-07T01:29:00Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > **Sharkgeon: Magnetic Sense** , coming soon to Syfy. A _platypusnadoe_ recently hit my yard… I told them to gettoffamuhlawn! Sunsamonotremebitches! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-dowsing-rods-work/682710.md?page=6)