• fing3r@feddit.deOP
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    1 year ago

    Great comment, thank you!

    You say buoyancy is irrelevant to humans, but would it be measurable?

    • mvirts@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I don’t think so, but it is definitely possible. We have incredibly precise measuring devices, and although it would be complicated by all the other things our bodies do it may be possible to measure.

      I used this calculator with density of 1.225 for air and 375ml for the volume of a large fart and it reports a force of about .0045 N. This is about .45 grams, which is about .001 lbs, which is what this company claims their sensitivity is… So since the boyant force excludes the gravitational force on the fart itself the measured force would be much smaller. you would need a scale much more sensitive to measure it. If you farted pure methane the force would be about half. A good measurement should probably have about 10 times the accuracy (.045 grams). Since you can buy a scale for a couple thousand dollars that almost gets there I’m going to guess that this would be measurable, but there may be some hidden gotcha I’m not aware of.