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what makes flatus smell more in the shower?

amish

amish

Diamond Member
well it is 5 till 5:00 on a friday, i'm pretty bored and am thinking about conundrums. what makes flatus smell more in the shower? a flatus is made up of multiple gasses once it is released. nitrogen is the primary component. other gasses include methane and hydrogen. odors come in the form of butyric acid, hydrogen sulfide, and carbonyl sulfide.

my hypothesis is that the odor causing agents, butyric acid, hydrogen sulfide, and carbonyl sulfide, bond with the water vapor (steam) to permeate the enclosure at a quicker and smellier pace.

your thoughts on this? i'm sure this could be proven scientifically through the description of the bonds of molecules.
 
I think olfactory glands are more sensitive when moist - hence, dogs have wet noses. Therefore, in the steamy shower, your olfactory glands are moistened enhancing your sensitivity. That's my read on it...
 
Or the sense of your flatus destroying the wonderful scent of shampoo is more powerful and noticeable then destroying the scent of standard unscented air
 
I would guess it is actually the rising steam and hot, moist air that carries it directly up your nose.
 
Originally posted by: bobsmith1492
I think olfactory glands are more sensitive when moist - hence, dogs have wet noses. Therefore, in the steamy shower, your olfactory glands are moistened enhancing your sensitivity. That's my read on it...
Click to expand...

My experience agrees with that. I can always smell things more clearly or easily after just getting out of the shower. Either the olfactory glands are moistened due to water vapor, or the vapor clears up the nasal passages to better introduce smells.
 
Two processes at work here.

First, steam causes sinus and bronchiole passages to clear. It's actually a method of treating Asthma that asthmetics are taught if their puffers aren't available. Clearing sinus passages increases the sense of smell.

Second, "Smelling" something is actually the process of detecting minute particles of said substances in the air. When you rip one, your sense of smell is detecting the minute particles of the gas in the air. When you rip one in water vapor, some amount(And I'm not about to do the calculation), attatches to the water vapor, increasing the concentration for your nose to "Sample", and thus increasing the strength of the odor.

The ionic equation, for the "Rotten egg" smell of H2s(In farts) when in contact with water vapor is...

H2S(gaseous) + H20(gaseous) -> <-H30(Gaseous) + HS(Gaseous)

If the concentration of water vapor is sufficient, you end up with the following occuring as well...

HS + H2O -> <- H3O + S

From there, you get into the whole process of molecular weights and molecular speed, which are affected by the above reactions.
 
I think you guys are being too techinical about this.

When you take a poop in a bathroom with the door closed, you generally do not smell anything foul as the air gradually builds up with the smell of your own feces.

Walk out of the bathroom after washing your hands, come back in a few seconds later and "WHEEWWWW" it stinks.

Why does it stink? Because your senses become use to the smell while you poop, because the air gradually becomes filled with the smell you are not shocked. However, as you move out of the room and re-enter with a fully stocked room of poop, you get shock to your senses and can immediately smell the butt produce.

The fresh air kind of acts as a pallette cleanser, like a pickle during dinner.

Now when you are in the shower, you have all these great smells of shampoo, soap, etc., and when you rip one in there, the foul smell of your flatus is so greatly contradicting to the other smells around it that you have the "sense" of the smell being so much stronger then you would normally have it if you were say, sitting on the toilet and taking a dump.

This has nothing to do with "flatus particles attaching themselves to moisture" That is just silly.

 
hey man, define your terms

flatus
"intestinal gas produced by bacterial action on waste matter in the intestines and composed primarily of hydrogen sulfide and varying amounts of methane."
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/flatus

did you start this thread for the "giggle factor" ?

well, at least now i know what "flatus" is. learn something new
every day. yesterday it was Anna Nicole, today it's flatus.
Jesus.
 
actually i was bored on a friday and didn't want to fill out my timesheet. i had remembered mythbuster's special when they referred to passing gas as 'flatus' also. they made sure they called it flatus to avoid the 'giggle factor' and keep the discussion more scientific.

the nose being more sensitive due to the moisture makes sense. i guess the answer can alway be a simple one no matter how complicated you want it to be.
 
I agree that it is steam that makes it rise faster and more potent because it doesn't have as much time to expand then when you are in open air therefore it would hit more strongly but not for as long
 
Originally posted by: mozirry
I think you guys are being too techinical about this.

When you take a poop in a bathroom with the door closed, you generally do not smell anything foul as the air gradually builds up with the smell of your own feces.

Walk out of the bathroom after washing your hands, come back in a few seconds later and "WHEEWWWW" it stinks.

Why does it stink? Because your senses become use to the smell while you poop, because the air gradually becomes filled with the smell you are not shocked. However, as you move out of the room and re-enter with a fully stocked room of poop, you get shock to your senses and can immediately smell the butt produce.

The fresh air kind of acts as a pallette cleanser, like a pickle during dinner.

Now when you are in the shower, you have all these great smells of shampoo, soap, etc., and when you rip one in there, the foul smell of your flatus is so greatly contradicting to the other smells around it that you have the "sense" of the smell being so much stronger then you would normally have it if you were say, sitting on the toilet and taking a dump.

This has nothing to do with "flatus particles attaching themselves to moisture" That is just silly.
Click to expand...
I agree with this one. However I wouldn't say the attaching-to-moisture theory is nonsense. It just doesn't have as big of an effect as the contradicting of odors.
 
I think it has something to do with the water absorbing the more inert components of the emission, because flatus in the pool is noticeably more rank as well
 
I always assumed it was because you don't have any clothes on, so there's no hindrance to the escape of the flatus, so it's more concentrated.
 
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