this post was submitted on 22 Mar 2025
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Science Memes

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Asking the important questions. (lemmy.dbzer0.com)
submitted 2 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
67 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

https://www.iflscience.com/if-you-farted-in-a-jar-and-opened-it-20-years-later-would-it-still-smell-of-farts-78468

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[–] [email protected] 212 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (5 children)

TL;DR: No. The half-life of hydrogen-sulfide (one of smelliest constituents of a fart) reacting with the oxygen in the jar from just your fart is 12-37 hours. The article gives an example of a particularly potent hypothetical fart that would only retain any distinguishable odor for 9 days tops.

[–] [email protected] 109 points 2 weeks ago

This guy farts

[–] [email protected] 40 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

My dreams have been shattered.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 2 weeks ago

*sharted

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

There is a reasonable amount of oxygen in farts? Really?

[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

4% of a fart is oxygen, according to the article, which is enough to react with all of the hydrogen-sulfide, since 1 mole of oxygen is enough to react with more than 1 mole of hydrogen-sulfide (H₂S makes up around 1% of the total volume).

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago

What if we add oxygen absorbers in the jar as well ?

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Persumebly not but there is oxygen in the air, usually.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago

Dammit I wanted to breathe in only farts

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

So if I farted into a vaccum sealed bag... I could save it then?

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Sadly, the fart itself comes with oxygen included

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 weeks ago

So i have to design an attachment to take oxygen out of the fart before sealing it? I better start watching some TED talks this could be some work.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

What about the other odor producing compounds? From wikipedia:

Hydrogen sulfide, methyl mercaptan (also known as methanethiol), dimethyl sulfide, dimethyl disulfide and dimethyl trisulfide are present in flatus.