Everybody farts. Most people would rather not talk about it, which is exactly why the science and history behind it are so strange. Here are three fart facts that sound made up, and every single one of them is true.
1. Where a fart goes when you hold it in
It doesn't just vanish. When you hold in gas, some of it is absorbed through your intestinal wall into your bloodstream, travels to your lungs and leaves your body when you exhale.
Gastroenterologists back this up: gas that isn't passed ends up being breathed out. The good news is it doesn't come out smelling like a fart. The bad news is the rest of that gas isn't going anywhere, and holding it too long usually ends in an uncontrollable fart anyway.
And there's plenty to hold. People pass somewhere between 500 and 1,500 milliliters of gas a day, and estimates put the average at about 13 to 21 farts daily. About 99% of it is odorless. The smell comes from tiny amounts of sulfur compounds.
2. The study that compared men's and women's farts
In 1998, gastroenterologist Michael Levitt, nicknamed the "King of Farts," put the question to the test. Volunteers ate pinto beans, their gas was collected through rectal tubes, and two judges rated the smell without knowing what they were sniffing.
The result: women's gas had a significantly higher concentration of hydrogen sulfide, the rotten-egg compound, and the judges rated it as smelling worse.
Before anyone gloats, there's a catch. Men passed larger volumes of gas, so per fart, the total amount of smelly gas came out about even. The study was also small, just 16 people, so the debate isn't officially over.
3. The man a king rewarded for farting
In 12th-century England, an entertainer known as Roland the Farter held a manor in Suffolk in exchange for one very specific duty. Every Christmas, he had to perform for King Henry II.
The act, recorded in Latin in a medieval register of royal land holdings, was "one jump, one whistle and one fart." Historians have called him one of the medieval figures who sounds most like he should be made up.
Roland wasn't the last of his kind. A French performer known as Le Pétomane became a star in the 1890s by farting tunes on stage. And humans aren't alone: some herring appear to communicate with each other by farting.
