
Fart joke myth busted using Frink (a language for calculations) - zaph0d
http://futureboy.homeip.net/frinkdocs/#FartJokes
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slantyyz
I 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
I was hoping to see a proof for 'whoever denied it, supplied it'.

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scotty79
> 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
You 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
WolframAplpha 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+%...](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=12.5+kilotons+TNT+%2F+%286+years+%2B+9+months%29+in+horsepower)

~~~
Retric
(12.5 kilotons of TNT) / (6 years + 9 months) in horsepower

[http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=%2812.5+kilotons+of+TNT...](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=%2812.5+kilotons+of+TNT%29+%2F+%286+years+%2B+9+months%29+in+horsepower)

329.5 HP

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flatulent1
Just 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
I 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
I 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...

~~~
sprout
There have been a variety of hog-farms that have experimented with generating
heat from methane from the hog pens.

But putting humans in the sorts of conditions needed to make it viable would
generally be frowned upon by society.

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mahmud
You know, this Frink thing looks interesting. Gonna give it a shot.

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sp332
Under "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.

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scotty79
Depends on whether 2000 ml in the study was measured assuming STP. I guess it
should have been.

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DaemonXI
But STP is at 0 degrees C. Shouldn't it be at 298K instead of 273K?

~~~
sp332
The one I was thinking of was 20 C. According to Wikipedia, it could be
either.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_conditions_for_tempera...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_conditions_for_temperature_and_pressure)

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mkr-hn
I 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. :)

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bborud
Being off by a factor of 2.8 million is not that bad if you look at something
like the Drake Equation for comparison :-)

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stcredzero
I wonder what Wolfram thinks about Frink.

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WilliamLP
I think he's getting ready to release something similar in five years, say he
invented it, and sue Frink's author.

~~~
mahmud
Besides Mathew Cook, who else did Wolfram sue?

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Cook#Work_with_Stephen_...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Cook#Work_with_Stephen_Wolfram)

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dflock
Frink is awesome. What's even better, is that I see it's finally been ported
to Android!!

