They’re cheered about in locker rooms and lit on fire at parties, but let some flatulence slip in the boardroom and you won’t be the life of the party.
The mechanics behind flatulence (aka flatus) are simple enough: extra gas is produced in the digestive system and it needs a way to escape. The great escape can occur in two ways: either the gas will exit your mouth in the form of a belch, or it will exit your rear end as a fart. Most people will produce as much as three pints of gas each day, with a small percentage of it escaping as either burps or farts. Sometimes, gas episodes are accompanied with abdominal bloating, which can make for that painfully stretched-out feeling that will have you loosening your belt.
