[erepsysoulperj]

Originally posted by SlowwHand
How many calories does farting burn? Does attempt at suppression burn more; or are the good long rippers the real burners? Suppression burns more, of course. Farts basically recirculate until released (they um, "go back up" for a bit). You're going to fart them out sooner or later and until then, you make your body work harder by not farting. So fart suppression burns more calories.

[Gazeboss]

I've been thinking long and hard about this question, which is related to the farting discussion. The last time I started a thread on this back in 2001, the thread got deleted. So I'm going to try to sneak this one in, silently and balanced on one haunch perhaps, under the radar.

Fart gas is lighter than air, I think - it has a fair bit of methane and other organic gases that evolve from the breakdown of your intestinal contents.

So if you fart, you're expelling something lighter-than-air from your body.

Now picture this. You're standing on a scales which is very sensitive and is able to detect minute changes of weight. You feel one coming and you tell your friends to observe a moment of silence as you grab your arse cheeks and let 'er rip.

After a few minutes' applause, followed by fanning and opening windows, you check the scales.

Would the reading go down or go up? Would you have lost weight (by ejecting gaseous material from your body) or would you have gained weight (by jettisoning lighter-than-air material from your body)?

This is going to keep me up all night, I can tell.

[dselectronics]

If it is mass>0 then you have lost weight/mass, but gained density (if it's lighter than water, in fact).

[mazabotman]

Surely mass and weight are directly proportional.

[VewCoorkPow]

In zero gravity farting might be used as a means of propulsion

[Beragagnu]

Originally posted by Lorizael
I believe your mass would only go up after expelling lighter-than-air fart gas if that fart gas were then replaced by air. Which it is not, of course

[erelvenewmeva]

Actually, I spoke too soon - obviously it does matter if air leaks in, but it depends on how much, etc.

[tipoketpu]

Originally posted by Adrian Hon
Whether or not any air leaks in (and I don't think it does), we live in an atmosphere, and since the fart gas is lighter-than-air, your weight goes down. Now, if you were on the Moon and you farted, your weight would go down (assuming you had some sort of fart gas valve on your spacesuit or whatever). I think that word does not mean what you think it means.

Weight = Pull of gravity on a mass = proportional to mass when gravity is constant

Density = Mass over volume

Density is not relevant to weight. As stated above, unless the fart is replaced by a greater mass of air - which it, generally, is not - you are expelling mass/weight.

[soprofaxelbis]

Originally posted by snoopy369

Weight = Pull of gravity on a mass = proportional to mass when gravity is constant

Density = Mass over volume

Density is not relevant to weight. As stated above, unless the fart is replaced by a greater mass of air - which it, generally, is not - you are expelling mass/weight. OK, so imagine you are standing on some scales with about one hundred helium balloons strapped to you. Clearly the balloons, plus the helium inside them, add to your mass - but they're lifting you up, so the weight the scales report is actually reduced. Now, you let go of the balloons and of course your weight will go up. Ditto for helium, or any other lighter-than-air gas, that is somehow attached to you.

Amazingly, someone has written a lot about this (I searched for 'fart weight down' on Google):

http://www.helium.com/tm/522270/weig...awyer-recently

I notice that this makes a distinction between weight, and weight reported by a scale. I am obviously talking about the latter, since that's what was used in the original 'experiment'. But I agree that by your definition, weight has in fact gone down.

[usacomm]

Silly, but funny.