Why do we fart so much on planes? Explaining air travel's embarrassing problem | Hacker News Reader

Why do we fart so much on planes? Explaining air travel's embarrassing problem

bbc.com

25 pointsd_a_robson15 comments

Whoa buddy, let's take a step back. Are we even sure people fart more on planes. I have personally never noticed an increase in both producing and receiving such gases. And I think I would notice being packed in a sardine can with methane.

I don't fart any more or less on planes, but I am definitely much gassier after a spout of flying.

But I always assumed it was just because I subconsciously held it in more because of close proximity of unfamiliar humans.

The sense of smell is very different at high altitudes (the air pressure in aircraft cabins equals to the air pressure at about 2000m asl.), maybe it’s simply not noticeable.

I do around 6 TATL flights per year and I often notice it although the intensity varies. On short flights on the Eastern seaboard I never seem to have the same problems.

Maybe you were tinking with your phone and didn't notice.

Best part is the line that men don't fart more then women and that women tend to have smellier farts. Having 4 sisters and married with two daughters I agree.

Sorry but as a man in a similar position, that science ain't gonna help us. I think the real problem is in the way we present the fart; apparently a proud grin and a nod to my son isn't 'polite'.

I didn't notice this, because I sometimes use my flatus for crass humor or for social retaliation. Most of the time, I hold it in before the flight, and squeeze out as much as I can right at the screening checkpoint, as the penalty for inconveniencing me with security theater. As a result, I wouldn't have all that much left for the plane, unless it was a long flight.

It's such a petty and rude form of protest that I wonder why I do it at all. Perhaps it's because, despite my age in the double digits, I still think farts are funny.

Pressure decreases (even in pressurized cabins) air expands - case closed.

If science were that simple, the world would be a very different place.

Boyle's law - 1/2 the pressure, twice the volume.

Man, I don't really fart on planes.

More than anything, this study seems to illuminate something about the person/people who formed the hypothesis. I love it.

And do you know what happens if you do not fart?

The air goes somewhere. In fact, it is dissolved back through your large intestines and is dissolved back to your blood.

Somebody should fix the title so that it bears even a passing resemblance to the article title.

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