Farting in space

There are a couple of things to consider:

First, is your body stationary and absent of any gravitational or other external forces? Solar radiation and mavity could produces forces in different directions on your body greater than the force exerted from your anus . This will effect the final direction and total sum of the force vector

Secondly, are you a normal human being? The point of flatulence release is not located at the bodies centre of mass. Thus a fart would actually cause you to rotate as well as give you velocity

Edit: Just read Adolfs post, beat me to it!
 
if we make all sorts of assumptions, we can get a rough idea of how much thrust you'd gain by substituting the values below in the conservation of momentum equation:

mass of expelled gas 1g

mass of farter: 60kg (very light)

velocity of fart gas: 50m/s

solving for delta V

60dv = 0.001 x 50
dv = 0.0008333 m/s

So even assuming a fairly large fart at very high speed, the difference in your velocity is going to be insignificant. If, however, you sharted out some rusty water, a volume of maybe 1 litre, that would give us the below result:

59dv = 50x1
dv = 0.84m/s

which is actually not too bad. So explosive diarrhoea could propel you at a noticeable rate, whereas farts are mostly useless.
 
The force action pushing outward from your hole would invoke an equal and opposite reaction (the direction opposite your rear-end.) It would obviously be very little and you wouldn't notice it.

It's the same principles behind the space chairs astronauts use. You push the booster out in one direction and it's the opposite reaction that sends the astronaut moving the way they want. To slow down you would need to release another booster in the opposite direction with a lesser force. To stop you would need an equal amount of force. And if you want to go in reverse, you'd need a greater force.

The best thing about these laws of physics is that a young guy in the 1600's discovered this.
 
Devrij said:
:

mass of expelled gas 1g

mass of farter: 60kg (very light)

velocity of fart gas: 50m/s

solving for delta V

60dv = 0.001 x 50
dv = 0.0008333 m/s

.
Click to expand...

Its even worse than that, even a massive fart is less than 0.5g and even an extremely fast one is 3m/s.

They've been recorded upto 10ft per second, and 5ml-375ml, although who the hell is researching this.
Air weighs 1.2g per litre.
 
If I was caught in space and the only way to move myself was to expel a bodily substance I would probably think ahead and take a razzle mag up with me, rather that trying to fart myself back to earth.
 
Blazin23 said:
Inbe4 theoretical thread.


Let's say you are in space, stationary, without a suit (NAKED), somehow you survive long enough to let out a backdoor breeze. Does this propel you? Do you move at all? Does it act as a thruster?

Serious answers only pls


EDIT: No planes, no treadmills. Don't even think about it!
Click to expand...

You think too much. :D
 
Glaucus said:
Its even worse than that, even a massive fart is less than 0.5g and even an extremely fast one is 3m/s.

They've been recorded upto 10ft per second, and 5ml-375ml, although who the hell is researching this.
Air weighs 1.2g per litre.
Click to expand...

Well then, it sounds like sharting out vast quantities of liquid is your only escape, but practically speaking you'd be looking at even lower exit velocities, so you may just end up farting in a liquid cloud of your own rusty water, moving ever so slowly towards your goal.
 
Devrij said:
Well then, it sounds like sharting out vast quantities of liquid is your only escape, but practically speaking you'd be looking at even lower exit velocities, so you may just end up farting in a liquid cloud of your own rusty water, moving ever so slowly towards your goal.
Click to expand...

Sounds sublime :D
 
Ryan-3 said:
Requires oxygen ;)
Click to expand...

I wasn't really thinking of the hypothetical method being that of whipping out a lighter, but should we want to have that constraint, is it possible someone could hold on to any air in any capacity? In that case, they fold their legs behind their head, grab a lighter from their pocket and expel the air to feed the combustion as they fart with all force to gain maximum thrust.

After such an effort, there surely must be a way to make it home safely. Perhaps a special antifreeze for astronaut with added induced coma. I'm thinking of a film plot here. Maybe Thunderpants: The Return.
 
Why is space so dangerous? I dont get how Earth can be good for us, yet if we go into space it all changes... who made that rule up, stupid tbh... if we are supposed to evolve like Jesus said, then surely the next step from being fish > monkey > human... would be human spaceman?
 
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