• seathru@lemmy.sdf.org
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    9
    ·
    1 day ago

    What if you had eaten something that created a bunch of hydrogen gas (and lived somehow)? Wouldn’t standing on a precision scale at sea level, in a sea level atmospheric pressure and composition, show you getting heavier as you expel the hydrogen.

    • Otter@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      edit-2
      1 day ago

      I’m not sure it would, unless the person’s volume also changes considerably.

      Buoyant force comes from a displaced volume of fluid (the outside air in this case)

      • Fondots@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        1 day ago

        Well your guts and skin and other tissues do have some elasticity, I suppose it is possible that a large gas bubble might be able to expand your abdomen slightly.

        We’re very much into spherical cows in a vacuum territory here. I don’t think there’s any way this would be realistically measurable,just fun to think about.

        • Windex007@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          1 day ago

          It would have to expand your abdomen slightly, assuming you don’t have access to a fourth dimension.