I really like your question! This is like a trivia question… which I am normally pretty bad at actually…
I don’t know the answer to your question but i’m about to make an educated (or not so educated) guess:
So the average person lives to be what… 80 odd? so lets imagine that when you are a baby you poo several times a day… so lets say for the first 3 years you poo 4 times a day: thats 4x365x3 = 4380
Then, for the next, 50 years on AVERAGE (and considering you dont get food poisoning too many times or are constipated too many times) you probably poo once a day? thats 50 x 1 x 365 = 18, 250
Note – I am also forgetting leap years here but I assume on average it will all work out…
Then, for the last 25 years of your life you might poo less, because your metabolism slows a little and you eat less. Lets say 1 poo every 2-3 days (every 2.5 days) thats 1/2.5 per day = 0.4 poos per day x 365 x 25 = 3650
So add those up and you have 3650 + 18250 + 4380 = 26280 poos. (wow – anyone going to buy shares in sorbent!?)
So that wasn’t a biology question — it was a *physics* question: all physicists have to do “back-of-the-envelope” calculations all the time!
Seriously, stigma96, educated guesswork is an essential part of just about all areas of science. You make some reasonable assumptions, and see where they take you.
Oh, and did you know that at some point in the first few months of life, it is apparently normal for a baby not to poo for SEVERAL DAYS? And then, all of a sudden,…
hi stigma96,
I really like your question! This is like a trivia question… which I am normally pretty bad at actually…
I don’t know the answer to your question but i’m about to make an educated (or not so educated) guess:
So the average person lives to be what… 80 odd? so lets imagine that when you are a baby you poo several times a day… so lets say for the first 3 years you poo 4 times a day: thats 4x365x3 = 4380
Then, for the next, 50 years on AVERAGE (and considering you dont get food poisoning too many times or are constipated too many times) you probably poo once a day? thats 50 x 1 x 365 = 18, 250
Note – I am also forgetting leap years here but I assume on average it will all work out…
Then, for the last 25 years of your life you might poo less, because your metabolism slows a little and you eat less. Lets say 1 poo every 2-3 days (every 2.5 days) thats 1/2.5 per day = 0.4 poos per day x 365 x 25 = 3650
So add those up and you have 3650 + 18250 + 4380 = 26280 poos. (wow – anyone going to buy shares in sorbent!?)
2
So that wasn’t a biology question — it was a *physics* question: all physicists have to do “back-of-the-envelope” calculations all the time!
Seriously, stigma96, educated guesswork is an essential part of just about all areas of science. You make some reasonable assumptions, and see where they take you.
Oh, and did you know that at some point in the first few months of life, it is apparently normal for a baby not to poo for SEVERAL DAYS? And then, all of a sudden,…
0