high altitude flatus expulsion

hernesheir commented on the word high altitude flatus expulsion

A curious illustration of Boyle's Law experienced by mountaineers, pilots, and others who experience high altitudes. Wikipedia.

A.k.a. high altitude gas

I initially read this as "explosion"....

September 19, 2009

skipvia commented on the word high altitude flatus expulsion

Sheer poetry.

September 19, 2009

chained_bear commented on the word high altitude flatus expulsion

Skipvia, you have to have a list for this somewhere. Firmament-clogging rottenness, perhaps?

September 19, 2009

sionnach commented on the word high altitude flatus expulsion

Well, that sounds nice, but I have my geekish doubts. Not about the existence of the phenomenon, but about the invocation of Boyle's Law as the explanation. After all, Boyle's law tells us about the behavior of a gas at constant temperature, which wouldn't seem to apply for mountaineers. Granted, commercial pilots exist in nice temperature-controlled cabins, but these are also pressure-controlled as well. So I think you'd have to ...

Oh, never mind. Sometimes even I am annoyed by my own pickiness.

September 19, 2009

skipvia commented on the word high altitude flatus expulsion

98.6 is a pretty consistent temperature. Maybe mountaineers with hypothermia experience it differently.

September 20, 2009

hernesheir commented on the word high altitude flatus expulsion

I think this phenomenon hinges on the change in ambient pressure... body temperature and volume of produced gas are more or less constant - so the gas, expanding under less pressure, is wont to be expulsed with greater frequency than at sea level, or the otherwise normal altitude of the *participant*. It's been measured, as the Wikipedia source provided discusses...

September 20, 2009

sionnach commented on the word high altitude flatus expulsion

Ah yes. Good point, skip! Duh!

September 20, 2009