6 ms·
Fart joke myth busted using Frink
- sp332 16y agoUnder "Advanced Farting," isn't the molar volume wrong? I think the program is assuming STP, but the human body is much warmer and possibly under more pressure as well.
- scotty79 16y agoDepends on whether 2000 ml in the study was measured assuming STP. I guess it should have been.
- DaemonXI 16y agoBut STP is at 0 degrees C. Shouldn't it be at 298K instead of 273K?
- sp332 16y agoThe one I was thinking of was 20 C. According to Wikipedia, it could be either. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_conditions_for_temperature_and_pressure http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_conditions_for_tempera...
- stcredzero 16y agoI wonder what Wolfram thinks about Frink.
- WilliamLP 16y agoI think he's getting ready to release something similar in five years, say he invented it, and sue Frink's author.
- mahmud 16y agoBesides Mathew Cook, who else did Wolfram sue? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Cook#Work_with_Stephen_Wolfram http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Cook#Work_with_Stephen_...
- scotty79 16y ago> 12.5 kilotons TNT / (6 years + 9 months) -> horsepower At first I thought that this is some peculiar quality of bizarre american unit system that energy released by kiloton of TNT divided by one month equals power of one horse. As opposed to usual joules, seconds and watts. Amazing how fast you can do "back of the envelope" calculations with such tool empowered by default with unit conversions.
- hugh3 16y agoYou can do exactly the same thing sans frink with google, except you have to look up the KT --> J conversion yourself (google is still missing some obscure units). Just stick in: 12.5*4.184e12 J / (6 years + 9 months) in hp
- ugh 16y agoWolframAplpha is also useful for those kind of calculations (couldn’t find a way to do the last one, though): http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=12.5+kilotons+TNT+%2F+%286+years+%2B+9+months%29+in+horsepower http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=12.5+kilotons+TNT+%2F+%...
- Retric 16y ago(12.5 kilotons of TNT) / (6 years + 9 months) in horsepower http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=%2812.5+kilotons+of+TNT%29+%2F+%286+years+%2B+9+months%29+in+horsepower http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=%2812.5+kilotons+of+TNT... 329.5 HP
- slantyyz 16y agoI was hoping to see a proof there for 'whoever smelt it, dealt it'. A little disappointed, but the other calculations made up for it.
- dkersten 16y agoI was hoping to see a proof for 'whoever denied it, supplied it'.
- mkr-hn 16y agoI think it's telling that this technology that has been used to wage wars, create and drive industry, and save lives has matured to a point where we can afford the CPU cycles for such calculations. Perhaps one day it will be able to test "your momma" jokes. :)
- mahmud 16y agoYou know, this Frink thing looks interesting. Gonna give it a shot.
- flatulent1 16y agoJust as operating systems are not all the same, farts are not all the same. Some really stink, while others don't. Some pack a lot of energy while others don't. The paper doesn't dig deep enough for the facts. (sorry!) There are many hundreds of different kinds of bacterial active in the gut. The bacterial mix varies from person to person. The mix of the fuel varies too. Even without advanced analysis (anal-ysis?) it isn't hard to confirm some of the differences. For example those with flora producing high metane more frequently produce floaters. Do yours float? Probably the best demonstration I've seen was a group of bored college guys sitting around having something of a farting contest. Being the educated group they were, they went a step beyond that and dug out the propane lighters to see who could throw the biggest flame. (warning, don't try this nude, some got pretty hot even with some protection from clothing) It turns out some threw substantial flames while others just couldn't get lit. Aside from the bacterial and solid-food variations, it seems that beer farts don't burn. Perhaps someone can get a grant for continued study...
- teilo 16y agoI don't think you bothered to read the page. A simple knowledge of thermodynamics demonstrates the sheer impossibility of the myth. The last calculation on the first section of the page will suffice: If you have a 1-inch pipe, shooting out pure natural gas at 28 MPH, you would have the equivalent of the Hiroshima bomb in 6 years 9 months. The methane produced in the gut has nowhere near that concentration, so it would have to be blowing much faster. A 1/10 ratio would mean 280 MPH.
- flatulent1 16y agoI read the page, and don't disagree with the conclusions. The myth has already been sufficiently clubbed to death. But if by extension this topic invites us to ask how much energy there actually is, there are some things missing from the analysis. The distinction between farts that burn and those that won't is a huge variation. In the case of farts that don't burn, the easily extracted power may be only what a micro-turbine could produce. I'm not sure why my comment got negative ratings. It wasn't meant as a troll or flamebait and opens a related area of scientific analysis to the topic. I think it would also be interesting to ask what could be potentially powered by farts? Is it possible to make a thin fuel cell in underwear that can produce some power? What useful things might be run with the expected amount? To whoever down-modded me... please try to be a little more open-mined. Otherwise a fart in your general direction...
- bborud 16y agoBeing off by a factor of 2.8 million is not that bad if you look at something like the Drake Equation for comparison :-)
- dflock 16y agoFrink is awesome. What's even better, is that I see it's finally been ported to Android!!