Driving into flatulence

[triplemultiplex]

Sometimes when you're in the car, you'll smell it, and the predictable cries of accusation always spring up. But I don't see how the source of it can be anyone in the car, for the car is moving. If they farted in the car, the stench would have been left behind, right? So my conclusion is that you're driving into a fart produced by someone in a car up ahead.

Make sense?

The fart will stay in the car because it, along with everything else inside the car is traveling at the same speed.  It's the same reason you can toss a ball straight up in a moving vehicle and have it fall straight down back into your hand.  The fart will diffuse in the air the same way it would in a static room.
It's also the same reason we do not detect the thousands of miles an hour we are traveling through space on our planet.

[roadman]

Did we just pass a sulphur factory? - Bill Cosby

[NE2]

It's also the same reason we do not detect the thousands of miles an hour we are traveling through space on our planet.

You don't? Freak.

-The Doctor

[DeaconG]

Paper mills are especially bad generators of that smell...

I-95 near Brunswick, Georgia is a supernatural type of nasty.

Oh God, I forgot about that one.

[Grzrd]

I suppose it is possible that a car driving past this parked vehicle moments after the driver opens his door would have to contend with some flatulence.

[bugo]

Once I was stopped at a traffic light with the windows down and the guy in the next car over ripped an LAP.

[vdeane]

I think this forum has JUMPED THE SHARK

[Duke87]

I think this forum has JUMPED THE SHARK

On the contrary, the fact that this forum is capable of producing and sustaining threads like this is one thing I love about it.

[sammi]

I think this forum has JUMPED THE SHARK JUMPED THE SHARK

Come on. You didn't even try.

[bandit957]

The fart will stay in the car because it, along with everything else inside the car is traveling at the same speed.  It's the same reason you can toss a ball straight up in a moving vehicle and have it fall straight down back into your hand.

Not so sure if that's doable. Once when I was in high school, some kid on the school bus tried spitting a wad of bubble gum into the air and catching it with his mouth, but it landed on the floor because the bus was moving. I figured that if the bus was stopped, it would have landed back in his mouth.

It's also the same reason we do not detect the thousands of miles an hour we are traveling through space on our planet.

That's because our planet has gravity.

[TCN7JM]

Faribault, MN always smells like crap, even when you're nowhere near the sewage treatment plant they blame it on.

Hm. Don't think I noticed this -- thankfully so, I guess. I don't drive I-35 up to Minneapolis that often, but I was just there on Saturday (the weather in western Minnesota made it too risky to take MN 60) and didn't notice a thing.

[agentsteel53]

Not so sure if that's doable. Once when I was in high school, some kid on the school bus tried spitting a wad of bubble gum into the air and catching it with his mouth, but it landed on the floor because the bus was moving. I figured that if the bus was stopped, it would have landed back in his mouth.

the bus must have lurched.  if it is traveling at constant velocity, you can do the "throw and catch" trick.

[Molandfreak]

Faribault, MN always smells like crap, even when you're nowhere near the sewage treatment plant they blame it on.

Hm. Don't think I noticed this -- thankfully so, I guess. I don't drive I-35 up to Minneapolis that often, but I was just there on Saturday (the weather in western Minnesota made it too risky to take MN 60) and didn't notice a thing.

It's especially smelly on MN 3 and the eastern edge of town. I-35 is far enough away

[vdeane]

I think this forum has JUMPED THE SHARK

On the contrary, the fact that this forum is capable of producing and sustaining threads like this is one thing I love about it.

It still has the distinction of being among the weirdest.

Now I'm thinking it would be fun to post a thread with the sole intention of topping this, but my thoughts quickly went NSFW.  Moral of the story: I'm not allowed to think.

Also: you  removed the awesome formatting!

[Crazy Volvo Guy]

Paper mills are especially bad generators of that smell, there was one in Perry near US 19 that used to give me fits.

Driving past hog carriers on the road is also not recommended.

You mean getting passed by a livestock truck?  It's extremely rare that I see a bull/hog hauler doing less than 70, anywhere.  Usually they are well north of 75, and can occasionally be seen in the triple-digits out west.

Those guys are basically the last holdout of "outlaw trucking."

[Dougtone]

Driving past a dairy farm in the spring would certainly be an example of driving into flatuence.

[Crazy Volvo Guy]

You think dairy farms in the spring are bad?

Try driving past the beef farms in western Nebraska (or anywhere else) in the mid-late summer.  That's driving into some of the worst flatulence to ever grace the air.

[formulanone]

Not so sure if that's doable. Once when I was in high school, some kid on the school bus tried spitting a wad of bubble gum into the air and catching it with his mouth, but it landed on the floor because the bus was moving. I figured that if the bus was stopped, it would have landed back in his mouth.

Because high school kids do everything perfectly.

[agentsteel53]

You mean getting passed by a livestock truck?  It's extremely rare that I see a bull/hog hauler doing less than 70, anywhere.  Usually they are well north of 75, and can occasionally be seen in the triple-digits out west.

Those guys are basically the last holdout of "outlaw trucking."

I have never seen a livestock truck doing over 100.  in fact, the only two times I've seen any truck doing verifiably over 100 (i.e. I paced them) was one tractor hauling an empty flatbed, 106 down the grade from Flagstaff, and one random tractor with no trailer, doing over 103 on CA-99 near Fresno... I was doing 103 and it was gaining. 

[ilvny]

Well, it is possible to drive into the smell of a sewage treatment plant that smells just as bad, even if the windows are closed.

I remember smelling a weird smell on I-95 where it passes Port Richmond in Philadelphia.  My dad said that it's probably the Delaware River or a sewer.  It smells like sewage to me.  Has anyone noticed this?  I believe it's usually when the weather is warm.

[cpzilliacus]

I remember smelling a weird smell on I-95 where it passes Port Richmond in Philadelphia.  My dad said that it's probably the Delaware River or a sewer.  It smells like sewage to me.  Has anyone noticed this?  I believe it's usually when the weather is warm.

I noticed such a smell on D.C. 295 today - a vehicle carrying a load of untreated sewage unloaded it all onto the southbound carriageway between the Maryland border and the I-295/I-695 interchange. 

And there is the Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant near the southern tip of the land area of D.C. adjacent to I-295, which often smells pretty pungently in the summer.  I don't know how the people next door at the Naval Research Lab get much work done.

[Dougtone]

You think dairy farms in the spring are bad?

Try driving past the beef farms in western Nebraska (or anywhere else) in the mid-late summer.  That's driving into some of the worst flatulence to ever grace the air.

I would have to agree with you, the smell of the beef farms is a rather foul odor.  I drove through western Kansas on US 50 through Dodge City last year and yes, that was a horrible sort of flatulence. 

As for the dairy farms, I wrote that comment when I was half awake this morning.

[bugo]

Not so sure if that's doable. Once when I was in high school, some kid on the school bus tried spitting a wad of bubble gum into the air and catching it with his mouth, but it landed on the floor because the bus was moving. I figured that if the bus was stopped, it would have landed back in his mouth.

Because high school kids do everything perfectly.

No, because it was inertia.

[Duke87]

Also: you  removed the AWESOME FORMATTING!

Better?

[vdeane]

I was actually tempted to format the post like that, but figured that would be overkill territory.