Why do humans fart?

by | Mar 12, 2009 11:40 PM ET

You asked:

Why do humans fart? --- Gabby, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Marshall Answered:

There is this funny thing about the human body that most people don't realize: inside your large intestine there lives a whole little world of bacteria. There are more bacteria cells in your large intestine than there are human cells in your body (this is possible because bacteria cells are much smaller than human cells). As part of their normal day-to-day living, these bacteria create gas in much the same way that yeast create gas when leavening bread. We know this gas as a fart. Everyone farts several times every day because of the bacterial friends. For more info see How Farts Work

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