Farting in space

That "pilot" on mythbusters needs a good slap if he actually thought the plane wouldn't take off..... my god man you are a PILOT and you don't have a basic grasp of the physics you use to fly? :rolleyes:
 
groen said:
IF you fart in space that is enough propulsion to continue in space for infinity, am i right? we don't even need rockets as per mainstream science, one fart and you can reach mars in a few years. :D
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Maybe an oxygen supply, and a few cans of baked beans to get your speed up :D
 
I would think that buttock friction would be related to propulsion much like the effect of pinching the end of a hosepipe, therefore clenching ones cheeks during emission would probably be a good idea.
 
uv said:
Impossible - in space, no one can hear you fart.
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Indeed, if you're experiencing burbulance and wish to escape detection of the release of a loud smelly Tommy Squeaker then space would be a good place to do it, as well as a ham packing factory when activity is at its peak.
 
Devrij said:
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.
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Heh... I came in here to post something similar. Glad to see I don't need to bother :p

I would say, though, that a 50m/s fart is a massive over-estimate. If you're farting out gas at over 100mph then I fear for your state of your anus! Even more so if when comes to "rusty water" :D I think a 112mph shart would probably rupture everything from the small intestine down.

In the (indescribably unlikely) event that anyone should find themselves naked in a vacuum with only their bowel emissions for propulsion, the optimal method would be to allow pressure to build up as much as possible, and let rip with as much power as possible. Still, the change in momentum would be minute (as the above momentum-balance calculations show).
 
Judgeneo said:
Bubbles are formed when internal pressure and surface tension or the bubble, and external pressure are all balanced. This is pretty hard to do in space, and a simple fart just won't cut the mustard.
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Well, it implies that the fart-bubbles would be very small - much smaller than (say) farting into water. There would always come a point where the surface tension can overcome the pressure differential.

Also, consider that at -270C pretty much every gas would freeze (not Helium, but if you have helium in your farts then something is very wrong), so the fart emissions would quickly freeze into tiny balls of solid fart. Imagine if, in the distant future, an alien civilisation were to find the remnants of a frozen fart and see it as evidence of a long-dead civilisation. A frightening legacy for mankind...
 
Would one large fart be a better form of propulsion than a smaller but longer duration one? For example 1sec of larger fart vs 3-4sec of smaller fart. I presume it depend on the thrust generated?

Both were demonstrated today by colleagues at work (they cleared the room).
 
Zirax said:
Would one large fart be a better form of propulsion than a smaller but longer duration one? For example 1sec of larger fart vs 3-4sec of smaller fart. I presume it depend on the thrust generated?

Both were demonstrated today by colleagues at work (they cleared the room).
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Well, if the larger fart allowed for faster expulsion of gas, then it wins. If they are both the same velocity then the result is the same as long as the direction of the farts is the same.

And as Duff-Man points out, you would need to emit the largest and most anus-rupturingly violent fart/shart to even move the slightest bit. In all likelihood, though, you'll just be left floating in space while a frozen cloud of fart and shart disappears in the opposite direction.

If you could fire out a ghosty and a decent pace, that, in retrospect, offers the best chance of propulsion. More mass, one direction to go in, and you could potentially propel it out with a fart of you're lucky. Still not enough, but it's your best bet.
 
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I love this thread :D

And yes, as above, for a given total volume of fart-gas, the key would be expelling the gas with as much speed as possible. The duration of the fart is irrelevant to the total thrust - only the mass and speed come into play. So - pucker up that anus and squeeze it out as fast as possible. And if you can expel anything solid (or liquid) then that's going to be a big help.
 
I guess if you Botty Coughed in space whilst smoking a cigarette you would be thrust into instant orbit around Jupiter :p
 
Hey guys.

What if you ejaculated in space. Would that push you back?

I think this was asked in a AMA thread on reddit with Neil De Tyson and he did answer it.
 
Biohazard said:
What if you sneezed farted spewed and 'ejaculated' all at once?

Would you cartwheel among the stars forever?
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It depends on the direction that you sneeze / fart / spew / ejaculate. But yes, almost certainly you would spin to some degree.

The spewing would likely have the most momentum though, so you'd move backwards whilst you spin. Lovely!
 
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