How Much Does a Fart Weigh?

Flatus — the proper medical term for gases emitted from the intestines — has been examined at length in comics, on YouTube, and in bedrooms around the world. However, fart size is not often addressed. Gases consist primarily of nitrogen, hydrogen, carbon dioxide, oxygen, and methane. These gases have mass, which means it is theoretically possible to measure wind in terms of volume. But did anyone ever bother? If so, how?

Yes. And gently. In 1991, gastroenterologists from the Department of Human Digestive Physiology and Nutrition at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield, England. published Paper in a trade journal gut Which tried to determine the size of the tooth. Their method was simple: They took 10 volunteers, fed them 200 grams of cooked beans in addition to their normal diet, and measured their flatulence over a 24-hour period via a rectal catheter.

Place it where sunlight cannot shine. MediQuip

To ensure that their collection protocol was up to snuff, the subjects sat in the bathroom with a rectal catheter inserted—the line leading to a coated gas bag—and farted. Since there were no visible bubbles, they concluded that the catheter was sealed.

Doctors have determined that an average adult produces 705 milliliters of gas (about 24 ounces, or the equivalent of two cans of soda) per day. Men and women passed in equal amounts; The wind tends to be stronger after a meal.

Residues varied greatly in individual production, ranging from 476 ml to 1491 ml between subjects over a 24-hour period. The researchers noted that single farts, regardless of time of day, gender or body size, ranged from 33 to 125 ml, with an average of 90 ml. This equates to about three ounces of comics.

According to Matthew Bechtold, MD, a gastroenterologist and associate professor of clinical medicine at the University of Missouri, the size of flatus can be highly variable depending on the amount of air swallowed and the substance produced by bacteria in the colon. Simple carbohydrates that are not fully digested feed these natural bacteria, which then produce gas. “The main carbohydrate responsible for flatulence is raffinose, a sugar commonly found in cabbage and cauliflower, which is poorly digested,” he says.

The study indicated that volunteers on a low-fiber diet reduced most of the fermentation gases emitted, reducing the volume of gases to 200 ml for an entire day.

The researchers did not clarify whether any solid material would or should be taken into account when evaluating the wind’s mass. According to Bechtold, no fecal material leaks out during passing gas. “The anus does a good job of keeping in solids while getting gas out,” he says.

The approximate size of your average fart.

After that settled, we posed another gas-related query to Bechtold: If someone farted in cold weather with their pants down, could we visualize farts similar to the way we see someone’s breath?

“Since the gas is found in a 98-degree Fahrenheit environment just like the lungs, if the gas was passed into a cold enough climate, we would likely see it,” he says. “However, since most patients are fully clothed with a barrier of pants between the anus and the external environment, it usually goes unnoticed and spreads quickly through the air.”

In other words: wind is roughly a magnitude Airport approved travel bottleand can be seen in cold weather if you tend to take off your pants in the name of science.