Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 40 total)
  • Evolution and farting
  • cynic-al
    Free Member

    We’ve evolved long enough that most stuff we do/can do is for a purpose.

    Farting? Surely we could have silent sphincters if there was a benefit, so what is it?

    Humour? Blue angels? Discuss…

    thepurist
    Full Member

    A warning signal.

    racefaceec90
    Full Member

    (bleeped) if i know tbh.

    the joke has long since worn thin with my digestive tract 🙁

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    GrahamS
    Full Member

    Well the reason for farting is simple from an evolutionary point of view: those that lacked the Farting Gene tended to explode before they mated, which put them at a considerable evolutionary disadvantage.

    As for the noise, some hypothesise that it is an early form of mating call.

    Personally I suspect it promotes social cohesion as nothing is funnier than a well timed trouser trumpet.

    LoCo
    Free Member

    those that lacked the Farting Gene tended to explode before they mated, which put them at a considerable evolutionary disadvantage

    😆

    piemonster
    Full Member

    Brown angels seems more likely

    tomhoward
    Full Member

    What I’d like to know is…

    What affects the pitch and volume of farts? ive had everything from high pitched squeakers, to deep percussive thunderers, to silent but deadlies to ones that rival the volume of Krakatoa and can’t work out what causes what.

    I guess its somthing to do with ones ring, but as RFEC90 says, **** if I know…

    *is reminded of a Billy Connoly joke* ‘how funny would it be if your arse spoke the word ‘fart’ in the perps voice? No more ‘Oh it wasnt me..’ ‘It bloody was, I just heard you!’

    thegreatape
    Free Member

    It’s proof that God has a sense of humour, that he passed on when he created man. Although, in my experience, not woman.

    twinw4ll
    Free Member

    Love call followed by the love scent.
    Dosn’t seem to work on Wifey, says it’s just a stinky fart.

    ernie_lynch
    Free Member

    Surely we could have silent sphincters ……..

    We do have silent sphincters, the farting noise is caused by reverberations that the escaping gases initiate as they pass two tightly held arse cheeks.

    The anal pore being hidden from view behind two arse cheeks is the consequence of walking upright – the anal pore is clearly visible in most other animals.

    For evolution to deal with the issue would require us to evolve in such a way that allows us to walk on four limbs.

    Personally I’m quite content with walking upright and farting. Although I am intrigued at the thought of a bicycle with four pedals.

    thegreatape
    Free Member

    A tandem?

    mintimperial
    Full Member

    Herrings communicate by farting. I learned that from Octonauts.

    gwaelod
    Free Member

    Medical literature must be full of studies on this stuff…anybody got an academic login….

    TimP
    Free Member

    Ernie, how does a horse fart make noise?

    ernie_lynch
    Free Member

    Ernie, how does a horse fart make noise?

    I’ve never been in the presence of a farting horse so I don’t know if they are capable of full on trumpeting farts, but I guess it’s plausible as they have huge arse cheeks and I’m not sure if you can see their anal pore.

    TBH I don’t know one end of a horse from the other ……. horses are just big scarey creatures that live in the country imo.

    Drac
    Full Member

    Ernie, how does a horse fart make noise?

    Or dogs, cows, cats, sheep and pretty much any animal.

    RobHilton
    Free Member

    I’ve heard a cat fart – it was hilarious!

    The smell was anything but(t) funny 😕

    ernie_lynch
    Free Member

    Or dogs, cows, cats, sheep and pretty much any animal.

    I thought we were talking about proper manly farting sounds, not the girly sound of gas escaping. I’ve never heard a cat or dog do anything other than the sound of escaping gas.

    If that’s what you call farting you should be ashamed of yourself.

    Three_Fish
    Free Member

    You’re confusing evolution with design. Not everything we do is done perfectly or even necessarily efficiently.

    Drac
    Full Member

    I’ve never heard a cat or dog do anything other than the sound of escaping gas.

    Dogs can do pretty impressive farts but specialise in the silent but violent kind.

    globalti
    Free Member

    On Sunday I was stuck for 6 hours in a plane next to a Nigerian who farted disgusting sticky sulphurous “bad guts” farts every 15 minutes.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    I’ve heard cows let out some pretty fabulous rippers, usually accompanied by a high pressure shit geyser.

    ernie_lynch
    Free Member

    every 15 minutes

    That’s impressive, for most people farting is a random experience.

    downshep
    Full Member

    [video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBol5Y6wo58[/video]

    shermer75
    Free Member

    Medical literature must be full of studies on this stuff…anybody got an academic login….

    Yep, not sure what to search for though! What’s the medical term for parping?

    shermer75
    Free Member

    So far tried ‘farting’, ‘parping’ and ‘trouser trumpet’, no joy yet…

    shermer75
    Free Member

    To answer my own question it’s ‘flatus’, and there’s a whole world out there…

    ernie_lynch
    Free Member

    There you go globalti, a study by Danish gastroenterologist, Jacob Rosenberg, shows that not only do we fart more in planes but it is healthy to do so.

    http://digitaljournal.com/article/343736

    ….humans fart more up in the air than on the ground. This is because, they say, higher altitude causes the gut to create more sulfuric acid, which in turn causes us to emit proportionally more farts on a flight than the 10 a day we normally let go.

    An aspect of the work they produced is their insistence that we don’t hold back. We may be conditioned to be circumspect about where and how we let out our gas go but Rosenberg smells a problem there, saying that to refrain on a flight could impact your health.

    “That (holding back) holds significant drawbacks for the individual, such as discomfort and even pain, bloating, dyspepsia and pyrosis (heartburn), just to name but a few resulting abdominal symptoms,” the study said. “Moreover, problems resulting from the required concentration to maintain such control may even result in subsequent stress symptoms.”

    The researchers do note, however, that there is a dilemma for those working in the cockpit. “On the one hand, if the pilot restrains a fart, all the drawbacks previously mentioned, including impaired concentration, may affect his abilities to control the plane,” the study said. “On the other hand, if he lets go of the fart, his co-pilot may be affected by its odour, which again reduces safety onboard the flight.”

    thecaptain
    Free Member

    Methane is basically the result of inefficient digestion, but it’s difficult to fully digest everything. So I don’t think there is much actual *benefit* to it, but it’s not been worth our while evolving to not do it…

    dooge
    Free Member

    I swear part of my farts are because I eat too quickly and swallow more air than food.

    ernie_lynch
    Free Member

    Methane is basically the result of inefficient digestion…

    As anyone who watches QI knows, not all humans produce methane, iirc about half do.

    wallop
    Full Member

    I don’t really fart since I cut out processed carbs, which is slightly disappointing.

    maccruiskeen
    Full Member

    I thought we were talking about proper manly farting sounds, not the girly sound of gas escaping. I’ve never heard a cat or dog do anything other than the sound of escaping gas.

    You haven’t spent much time with Great Danes then – Not only can they fart like a trouper but they’re more surprised than anyone else in the room when they do it.

    WorldClassAccident
    Free Member

    The properly ripply farts are caused by skin rippling. In humans is tend to be buttock and the end of the poo pipe.

    For animals it tends to be the poo pipe before it leaves the animals.

    That is why Ernie* and the others were both right.

    *Try stamping on a rat for the countryside experience

    samuri
    Free Member

    horses and cows fart all the time. Noisily and smellily. Take it from a country boy.
    As do pigs and sheep.

    Our dog does great silent farts. You see her eye open and she looks around but they never make a noise. They make an awful smell though.

    surroundedbyhills
    Free Member

    So my mum has learned a trick and never been caught farting, she taught this same to my sister we suspect, but they don’t ever discuss it. Both my mum and my sister however have had to put up with my dad, me and my two brothers, my sister’s husband and her two boys who have spent a great deal of time and effort making up for their little trick.

    epicyclo
    Full Member

    maccruiskeen – Member
    You haven’t spent much time with Great Danes then – Not only can they fart like a trouper but they’re more surprised than anyone else in the room when they do it.

    Not only does mine look surprised, but she then sniffs her bum, looks disgusted, and walks out of the room.

    wiggles
    Free Member

    So my mum has learned a trick and never been caught farting, she taught this same to my sister we suspect, but they don’t ever discuss it. Both my mum and my sister however have had to put up with my dad, me and my two brothers, my sister’s husband and her two boys who have spent a great deal of time and effort making up for their little trick.

    Women don’t fart… they cough, then it starts to smell…

    JoeG
    Free Member

    Women don’t fart because they don’t stop talking long enough to build up the required pressure! 😉

    caffeineoldbean
    Free Member

    My daughter’s, 7 and 5 can at times let rip the most manly sounding farts I or the wife have ever heard. They have been letting these off since about age 2. We all have a great laugh when these rippers are sounded.
    It freaks me out though how girls so small can do this. I will never get used to it.

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