Thinking about it today, if the methane in bovine burps are contributing to global warming, is there enough methane in the Bessie’s belch to ignite? If you’re wondering how one goes about this, imagine Bessie is a bored college student with lots of peer pressure.
No.
Burps are air swallowed, or CO2 (eg from soda , or perhaps from HCl + carbonate reaction.)
If it was methane, it would be as smelly as a fart… Since a burp is never as smelly as a fart, its not the product of 24 hours stewing at body temperature…
There’s two sphincters (at each end of the stomach) preventing gas coming back the wrong way,
and peristalsis is one way … if there is gas you get sore where the peristalsis is going into overdrive.
While humans may not have much methane in a eructation, cows certainly do producing upwards 250 to 500 liters of methane per cow per day.
But methane is only flammable at certain concentrations, about 5-15%, in air. Too little and there is not enough fuel. Too much and not enough oxygen in the mix.
It might be difficult to get the right mix to light a cow burp on fire, but no problem setting cow farts on fire.
For the one millionth time, methane is odorless.
The smell is caused by sulfur compounds.
So there’s a chance a cow can enjoy a good cigarette without risk of doing a dragon imitation?
A bovine flame thrower would have been an *awesome *medieval weapon of war, though.