Human feces expansion in measurement

[Mystery_of_GodST]

Akward questions:

 

1. Approximatley how big does one average human stool expand too in measurement?

 

2. Approximatley how much of those one human stools would it take so that every little spec of the entire planets land (each continent) is covered with it?

 

Hope to get benificial answers from the knowledgable users on ScienceForum.Net

Edited December 12, 2010 by Mystery_of_GodST

[lemur]

I think this post is nonsense, (uh, I mean BS of course). Is it a joke or are you really full of it?

[Mystery_of_GodST]

I think this post is nonsense, (uh, I mean BS of course). Is it a joke or are you really full of it?

 

No Sir, inquiring minds want to know.

[John Cuthber]

Not sure if the post is gibberish or just written by someone whose English isn't very clear.

Are you asking

How big is a typical stool?

and

 

How many would you need to cover the surface of the earth?

[Mystery_of_GodST]

I'm asking, if you were to spread out on the ground an average human stool, how big would it expand to in distance?

[swansont]

I'm asking, if you were to spread out on the ground an average human stool, how big would it expand to in distance?

 

Why would it expand?

 

Or are you asking the area it takes up, in which case you have to ask how thin you are spreading it, as it were. If the latter, I think you can estimate it based on how much solid food one eats in a day. Some amount of that is water, so I'd guess around a half a kilo per day, with a density somewhat greater than water. But for a ballpark number, I'd use half a liter, or 500 cm^3 of daily poop. So for the whole world, we're talking about 3 billion liters, per day. 3000 m^3.

 

How thin do you wish to spread it? Or how deep do you wish to make your pile?

[Mystery_of_GodST]

swansont

Thank you for your co-operation.

 

Yes, I am asking the area it takes up.

 

Just one average sized human stool, how big would it take up in measurement?

Edited December 12, 2010 by Mystery_of_GodST

[swansont]

Area = Volume/thickness for a uniformly thick object

[Mystery_of_GodST]

The area I want to know is how far the average sized human stool would go if every spec next to each other FLAT on the ground, how much approximatley would that be please?

 

 

[swansont]

There is not enough information to answer the question. You have to specify a thickness, then you can apply the equation given previously. Without the thickness, the problem cannot be solved.

[John Cuthber]

The area of the earth is about 5 E 14 m^2

The volume is about 0.0005 m^3 so the thickness if spread out over the whole world would be 9.8 E -19 metres

A water molecule is about 1E-10 metres

so , assuming that human waste is mainly water you would need something like ten billion stools to cover the earth one molecule thick.

That's roughly one each.

[Mr Skeptic]

Yeah, take a sample and spread it over several pieces of paper as your desired thickness permits. Note that using dry vs moist paper may give different results. The area of the paper is length X width, measured in whatever units you like. Then compare to the land surface area of the Earth.

[Mystery_of_GodST]

As we proceed, I thank everyone for the help.

 

 

John Cuthber

 

I am referring to human feces, not urine. I'm a bit confused because human feces isn't water is it? Were you referring to human feces and not urine when you said 10, 000, 000, 000 of water one molecule thick? Also, you claimed the area of the earth is about 5 E 14 m^2, is that just LAND or including the oceans? I'm only concerned with how much human feces will cover the earth's LAND.

 

So what I'm basically asking now is, how much human feces one molecule thick would it take to cover the entire planets LAND surface (each CONTINENT, not water bodies)

 

Please and thank you.

Edited December 13, 2010 by Mystery_of_GodST

[Marat]

Gold leaf can be hammered out to being one of the thinnest substances known, due to the great maleability of gold. Perhaps he is asking a similar question about feces, i.e., what is the thinnest spread that could be achieved with it by hammering, drawing out, etc. But since feces are a composite rather than a substance defined by composition by a single, distinctive type of atom or molecule, it would be difficult to determine whether maximally flattened out feces were still feces at every point, or whether some of it was now only water or some other composite substance which could not count on its own as 'feces.'

 

Why are we discussing this, anyway? Is there a market somewhere for thin fecal leaf coverings of various materials?

[Mystery_of_GodST]

So, could anyone tell me approximatley how much human feces would it take to cover the entire planet's land (each continent)?

[TonyMcC]

Don't forget to wash your hands after the practical trial!

[agentrnge]

42

[TonyMcC]

Good computer you've got there agentrnge - but didn't think you had enough time to wait for the answer to emerge - lol.

[Mrs Zeta]

Why does it have to be human faeces? Can it be, say, dog's or other animal?

 

This is a discussion that does not reflect reality. In normal everyday life we produce a variable amount of excrement, of variable consistency, depending on age, activity etc etc. It is practically impossible to estimate a TRUE amount over a lifetime (think of the times you had diarrhoea, or constipation for days). An amount estimated over a month could skew the average produced over a year, depending on the degree of constipation over time.

 

If you are talking about one human stool, produced on one occasion as a sample for your experiment, then what happens if that sample happens to be liquid diarrhoea? And how long do you need to wait for a stool of a normal consistency to be produced? If you choose an average stool, then average for whom? Some people's average is less that others, (small women on average produce less than huge men), babies vs older people amounts vary.

 

So, it is impossible to give you an answer that reflects the truth. You might as well guess a number.

[John Cuthber]

"This is a discussion that does not reflect reality."

No Sh1t?

[Mrs Zeta]

2. Approximatley how much of those one human stools would it take so that every little spec of the entire planets land (each continent) is covered with it?

 

 

Another thing, even if you know the minimal thickness of the stool, you will still not be able to estimate the amount needed for covering every little spec of the planet. The reason is that in your calculations you need to take into account the fractal dimension of the earth's surface, and it would be impossible to cover each nook and cranny of the planet's surface even in theory. Your measurement becomes unreliable each time you look at the distance between two points on the planet's surface, because of power law similarities. It is the same when you try to calculate the distance between two rocks on the beach. The more accurate you wish to be, the more the distance increases because of the fractal properties of the rocks, sand etc between those two points.

[John Cuthber]

"you need to take into account the fractal dimension of the earth's surface"

No you don't. You only have to look at nooks and crannies big enough to hold a typical faecal molecule.

Most of the molecules are water (something the OP seems not to have realised).

[Mrs Zeta]

"you need to take into account the fractal dimension of the earth's surface"

No you don't. You only have to look at nooks and crannies big enough to hold a typical faecal molecule.

 

It is the same thing, is it not?