Would you still throw up if you drank an equal amount of water? Or soda?
Alcohol is a poison. When you ingest too much, your body wants to be rid of it. Lots of explanations all over the web just begging to be googled.
ni’jah’ed
It’s designed to make people promise God they will NEVER, EVER drink again if he just lets them survive the spinning room this one time.
Alcohol also interferes with the inner ear, causing vertigo. IIRC, it affects the viscosity of the fluid (endolymph), causing the otoliths to move to a new neutral position consistent with acceleration in a given direction.
Basically, there are these bulbs in the inner ear, which sit in a fluid, and move around while the body is experiencing acceleration. They normally sit in a neutral position, indicating no acceleration. Enough alcohol in your bloodstream will interfere with the viscosity of the endolymph, causing the bulb to move out of true, which tells your brain “constant acceleration X in direction Y”. That’s why the room can spin if you have too much to drink, especially if you close your eyes (depriving your brain of the higher priority ocular input which says you’re not spinning).
It certainly can contribute to the whole vomiting thing.
The 2nd question is a little harder to google though
That’s putting the cart before the horse. Poisons don’t cause vomiting because they cause vertigo. Vertigo causes vomiting because it can be caused by poisons. If you throw up from just spinning around a bunch or the like, it’s happening because your body thinks it might be a sign that you’ve been poisoned.
It’s easy answer by experiment, though.
Perhaps even a thought experiment.
You have a quart bottle of Jack Daniels. Drink the entire bottle in 30 minutes. Unless you are a hard-core drinker, you’ll be puking within another 30 minutes. Perhaps before you even finish the quart.
After you sober up, get a quart of water. Drink it in 30 minutes. Go to the bathroom.
Same thing with Soda.
I almost puked just reading that. And I love me some Jack. Would never consider chugging it like that though.
Good question. It makes me think of other questions, like why do people get fat if they overeat? 
A quart of Jack is 32 shots. Think about that for a minute… You’re telling someone to drink 32 shots in 30 mins? You’re actually telling them to commit suicide by alcohol poisoning.
The most hard core alcoholic I ever met did a quart of Jack a day, not in 30 mins.
I know you were just picking numbers out of a hat, but seriously, alcohol really will kill you.
This is an inevitable consequence of weak, inexperienced, or insincere drinking habits.
What’s a sincere drinking habit?
One where you have put thought into it so as to NOT end up a puking mess.
Without months or years of training and dedication, you can’t simply bolt a quart of Jack and expect a good outcome. Right heart, right mind, right liver, otherwise squash like grape.
Not really. A liter of vodka? Google whether one liter of water or soda will kill you.
If you’re talking volume, then yes because rapid overexpansion of the stomach will cause it to want to contract.
In college, there was a school-sponsored chugging contest; no booze, but Kool-Aid (or Hi-C). I was smart enough to only watch.
Afterward, the bathroom was a ::shudder:: technicolored mess as a number of stomachs went “contraction time” causing much reverse drinking to occur.
Maybe you didn’t read carefully:
A quart is 32 ounces, but more commonly a shot is 1.5 oz unless your bar is really cheap, so 21.33 shots.
But I don’t think they sell Jack in quarts. I’ve only seen it in 750 mL or 1.5 L, but it looks like they sell 1 L, which is at least close to a quart.
No, a quart of water will not have the same effect, even due to the quantity. Chugging larger amounts of water is bad though.
Interesting, and thanks to above, about viscosity of the endolymph.
But – for the sake of argument – it would be possible for the vertigo apparatus to be left untouched, people vomit for any number of other reasons.
Is the poison in the stomach recognized by the body and the reflex (not sure if “reflex” is the right word) of vomiting an independent cause as well?