Can farts be measured?

WHEREVER HUMANS ARE -- We had no way of avoiding the F word in the headline – besides, we wanted to attract your attention. If you've ever lost sleep wondering whether a fart’s smell can be measured, you’re in luck. For their doctoral thesis, two IT engineers at Cornell University recently constructed a machine that does exactly that. Robert Clain and Miguel Salas constructed a detector of flatulence using a monitor able to detect sulphuric acid, a thermometer and a microphone. They also designed the software that could measure the emission. A ‘light disruption of the air’ near the detector starts it off measuring the three pillars of the quality of the fart: smell, temperature and sound. Temperature, says Clain is a critical factor. The warmer it is, the faster it disperses. “Sound is at a higher level on the scale,” he says. “It gets points from zero to ten. If it reaches nine, a fan will disperse it.” After a few months putting the machine together, field work began. “Well, samples were not taken throughout the school, but we got quite a few.”

(Ed. note: Extracted, translated and adapted from Las 200 mejores preguntas de Quo) Quo is a general science magazine published monthly in Spain and other countries by Hearst Magazines. It is full of interesting, well-researched data, much of which flies straight over my head, but it is fun. They have excellent photography and occasionally publish a supplement, one of which is titled above and we used it to offer you a weekly extract. Just for fun.)