Acceleration and the Human Body

a (g)	event
2.9	sneeze
3.5	cough
3.6	crowd jostle
4.1	slap on back
8.1	hop off step
10.1	plop down in chair
60	chest acceleration limit during car crash at 48 km/h with airbag

Instructions for Vomiting

Step One

Find a spot to vomit. The bathroom is your best bet, but if you need to throw up because of an emergency situation, then simply induce vomiting and point your mouth away from other people.

Step Two

Take an emetic, like syrup of ipecac, if you have one on hand. Emetics are ingestible substances that induce vomiting. Adults should take 1 to 2 teaspoons of syrup of ipecac and then 1 cup of water. The syrup is safe if you take the proper amount.

Step Three

Find the constrictor muscle at the back of your throat if you don’t have an emetic. The constrictor muscle is behind the dangling bit of tissue called the uvula.

Step Four

Stimulate the constrictor muscle with a finger. Basically, just stick your finger down your throat and tickle it. Once you start to heave, take your finger out.

Step Five

Place your head lower than your hips to reduce the possibility of vomit entering your lungs. Stand up and bend over to vomit rather than kneel down.

http://www.ehow.com/how_2044918_induce-vomiting.html

Sickening — worst sound in the world announced

Vomiting is officially the most horrible sound ever, according to over a million votes cast worldwide in a mass online science experiment.

International visitors to the BadVibes website (www.sound101.org) — a research project from the University of Salford — listened to sounds such as a dentist's drill, fingernails scraping down a blackboard and aircraft flying past, before rating them in terms of their unpleasantness.

Although fingernails scraping down a blackboard is said to be the worst sound by many people, the actual recording of this sound only came 16th out of 34 sounds auditioned. Microphone feedback came a close second in the 'horribleness ranking', with many babies crying coming joint third with a horrible scrapping sound.

Over 1.1m votes were statistically analysed by Professor Trevor Cox of the University's Acoustic Research Centre, who conducted the experiment in order to explore the public's perceptions of unpleasant sounds and help inform the acoustics industry.

He said: "I am driven by a scientific curiosity about why people shudder at certain sounds and not others. We are pre-programmed to be repulsed by horrible things such as vomiting, as it is fundamental to staying alive to avoid nasty stuff but, interestingly, the voting patterns from the sound did not match expectation for a pure 'disgust' reaction.

"Similarly, the sound of fingernails down a blackboard has been compared to the warning cries of monkeys — again, something that humans might instinctively respond to because of our ancestry. So we examined whether the voting patterns for the scraping sounds were consistent with an evolved response. But only for the worst scraping sound were the results consistent with the hypothesis of an evolved response."

One of Trevor's discoveries was that females rated 25 out of the 34 sounds more horrible than males. However, baby cries were one of the few sounds males found worse than females. He said: "This may be because women play a role in protecting both themselves and their offspring from attack. It could be that females have become habituated to the sound of babies crying."

Trevor, who is now planning a similar experiment to rate the most pleasant sound in the world, is hoping to use the results of the BadVibes project to help inform industry about how to engineer sounds which are more pleasant.

He said: "This research has been fascinating in gaining an insight into why people are repulsed by certain sounds — and how this differs by gender, age and nationality. This is so important because noise significantly affects our quality of life."

www.sound101.org/

Robotic Ride

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7472502197006303244

Werner Stengel - master of thrills

"Simply put, Werner Stengel has been involved with more roller coasters than anyone. Stengel is involved with so many roller coasters because he does not build or sell the roller coasters, but works with most of the manufacturers that do. The type of work provided by Stengel varies from client to client and project to project. These services include design, layout and calculations for every aspect of roller coasters as well as other amusement rides. It is beyond the scope of the database to detail these services on a ride-by-ride basis."

http://fy.chalmers.se/LISEBERG/eng/stengel.html
http://www.geocities.com/coaster_designers/stengel.html

Floating Bed

Architect Janjaap Ruijssenaars spent the last six years working on the development of a magnetic floating bed. A scale model of it was presented at the Millionaire Faire recently. The bed simply floats in the air, above magnets, can carry up to 900 kilos and is held in place through four very thin wires.
http://www.universearchitecture.com

Levitating Chaise

British company Hoverit, Ltd., has recently introduced "The Lounger," a chair that defies gravity by hovering a few inches above its base. The Lounger uses permanent magnets in the chair and base to life the chair in the air.

Disney vs Debord:

Methods and Ideologies for Manipulating
the Viewer through Space

by Josh Weihnacht

Slow Rotation Room

More microgravity lab facilites:
http://www.graybiel.brandeis.edu/facilities/facilities.html

Three sources of balancing information

Three sources of balancing information.
The first source is proprioceptive sensors in our muscles that tell our brains where the parts of our bodies are in relationship to each other. The second source is the tiny hairs in our inner ears called cilia, the vestibular system, that tells us how our heads are positioned. The third source, and probably the most important, is our eyes. Eyes tell us which way is up and which way is down.

Spinning chair and balancing platform.
The spinning chair is called a centrifuge. The balancing platform is known as the "balance booth" but is actually a "posturography system."

http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/news/2003/news-balance.asp

Physiology of Vomiting

How does a person vomit?

A. The stomach is relatively unimportant in the act of vomiting. The brain is in charge, and muscles adjacent to the stomach do the work. The vomiting center is located in the medulla oblongata, the rear part of the brain. This neural center acts on information supplied by the stomach, the intestines, the gag reflex in the throat, the inner ear, and most importantly, the chemoreceptor trigger zone (CTZ), which is located on the floor of the fourth ventricle in the brain, in case anyone cares. The CTZ takes in data about the presence of toxins in the blood and alerts the vomiting center to go to work when it believes the body has been poisoned. The stomach and intestines can signal for vomiting to occur when they are irritated or overloaded. The function of the gag reflex in the throat -- actually the province of something called the constrictor muscle-- is well known.

The second phase of the vomiting cycle is retching. The contractions of retching feel much like those of the expulsion phase, but retching too does not lead inevitably to vomiting. The vomiting cycle thus can be halted at any point prior to expulsion. In retching, the respiratory and abdominal muscles contract, forcing the gastric contents into the esophagus, but this is not enough to propel them out of the body. At the rest phases between retches, the stomach contents reflux back into the stomach.⁵

The key distinction between retching and expulsion is the motion of the diaphragm. When vomiting occurs, it is because the diaphragm relaxed suddenly during the retching cycle, enabling the stomach contents to be expelled through the mouth.⁶

The muscles that do the work are the diaphragm and the abdominal muscles. When the body is ready to vomit, the pyloric sphincter (which separates the stomach from the duodenum) closes, while about 45 seconds before vomiting,⁷ the lower esophageal sphincter (which separates the stomach from the esophagus) relaxes greatly, pulling the top of the stomach into the shape of an inverted funnel. The stomach contracts to shift contents from the lower to the upper portion.⁸ The abdominal muscles tighten, and the diaphragm goes down sharply in one or more contractions, squeezing the stomach. With the usual exit from the stomach closed, the contents have nowhere to go but up.

Q. Where exactly is the constrictor muscle?

A. The constrictor muscle is in the back of the throat, right behind the uvula.

Q. Why does vomit taste so awful?

A. It's a myth that stomach acid gives vomit its bad taste. Stomach acid is tasteless, although it does produce a burning sensation if it comes into the mouth through burping, vomiting, or acid reflux. The foul taste of vomit is due to three factors:

1. Vomit contains butyl acid, a chemical produced in the small intestine, which gives vomit its unforgettable smell and taste
2. Vomit consists of digested and partly-digested food -- different kinds of food -- mixed together in ways that no one would ever attempt voluntarily
3. Vomit typically contains no sweeteners; sugars are the first part of food digested, as digestion of them actually begins while they're still in the mouth

Q. Why does vomit look like nothing that has been eaten?

A. Only vomiting occurring shortly after eating would contain anything looking familiar. By the time the stomach contents have been processed by the small intestine, they become unrecognizable glop.

Q. Why is there material from the small intestine in vomit?

A. As mentioned above, stomach acid is very strong. One of the main functions of the stomach is to disinfect that which is entering the body, and it uses a powerful level of hydrochloric acid to soak the food sterile. Ask any heartburn sufferer about the power of stomach acid. In an important step approaching the climax of the vomiting process, the vomiting center issues a command to have the small intestine send a fair portion of its contents back into the stomach. This starts about one minute before vomiting and lasts about 45 seconds.⁹ (For those who cherish bits of trivia, this is called the retrograde great contraction.) This has the effect of neutralizing the vomit,¹⁰ making it less damaging to the esophagus, throat, mouth, and teeth. Some researchers contend that expulsion of the intestinal content is a necessary part of the vomiting act in itself [since the intestine is where the toxin was detected by the CTZ], and that the movement into the stomach puts it in place for being ejected.¹¹ The transfer of intestinal matter also increases the volume in the stomach, which makes vomiting easier.

Q. Increased volume makes vomiting easier?

A. Absolutely. For those who suffer from multiple episodes of vomiting, those later incidents would be soothed greatly if there were material available to be brought up. People who suffer from the "dry heaves" at the end of a vomiting cycle describe them as much more painful and traumatic than the "wet heaves" that open the process. In fact, dry heaves can even damage the esophagus and sphincter, causing bleeding and even tearing.

Q. How should one vomit?

A. Every medical book that has an opinion says that the head should be kept lower than the hips while vomiting. This is to prevent aspiration of the vomit into the lungs. This is especially important while holding a small child who may not know what to do.

In practical terms, this means that one should stand upright and bend over so that the mouth is almost in the toilet. Children should be taught to vomit this way. Anecdotal evidence suggests that most people disregard this advice and either kneel or squat in front of the toilet, positions which do nothing to protect one's airway.

Despite the common sense of it, it makes no difference in terms of efficiency what position the body is in. Medical researchers trying to learn the best way to remove poisons from the body in emergency treatment experimented with people vomiting in the two positions and found that vomiting while lying prone as opposed to sitting made no difference in the volume of material ejected.¹²

Q. How did those researchers find 20 people who were willing to be induced to vomit in two different positions?

A. Beats me, but you may be interested to know those 20 subjects vomited an average of 660 ml while sitting and 636 ml while horizontal.¹³

FACTOID: In a recent Internet survey, 64 percent reported having vomited in public.

Q. How is vomiting induced?

A. The two main ways are stimulation of the constrictor with a finger -- bet you knew that -- and ingestion of syrup of ipecac, which has been the emetic of choice for decades now. In the past, people were urged to induce vomiting using a greater variety of emetics, including salt and mustard powder, which are not as effective as ipecac and which can be poisonous themselves if vomiting does not occur. It's a good idea to keep syrup of ipecac on hand in case the poison center ever tells you to administer it to a poisoning victim. The stuff is available over the counter at any drug store.

Q. But isn't ipecac dangerous too?

A. Only if it's abused, as by a bulimic using it regularly. Syrup of ipecac is quite safe in emergency administration, partly because the recommended dose -- 30 ml (2 tbsp) -- will cause vomiting in upwards of 99 percent of patients. In fact, as little as 5 ml (1 tsp) will cause vomiting in over 90 percent of people.

Q. So why is the recommended dose six times higher?

A. Because that 99 percent effectiveness rate is desired, and also because the medical personnel want the patient to vomit repeatedly to ensure that the poison is flushed out completely. Here is an account of an experience with ipecac.

Q. What's the time frame for that repeated vomiting?

A. Subsequent episodes of vomiting, if they occur, are most likely to come at 20-minute intervals, closely corresponding to the cycle of the stomach in emptying the normal way.

Q. How long does it take to vomit?

A. About 20 seconds. Each wave typically takes six seconds and there are usually three or four waves. Having all the vomit come up in one wave is rare, making two the minimum. So those subjects mentioned above who brought up about 22 ounces (640 ml) probably had three waves averaging about a cup (8 oz) each. The first wave is almost always the smallest.

MOTION SICKNESS

Q. You mentioned the inner ear. What's that got to do with vomiting?

A. The inner ear is another place that has the ability to detect toxins in the blood. Many people have suffered dizziness at the same time as nausea and vomiting. This heightens the likelihood that the vomiting was caused by food poisoning or some other kind of poisoning. This is also why people experience nausea and vomiting from motion sickness.

Q. How so?

A. The motion caused by travelling -- especially on a boat -- moves the fluid in the inner ear all kinds of directions at once. As mentioned, one function of the inner ear is to detect poisons in the blood, which cause it to go haywire. In motion sickness, the brain reads the excess stimulation of the inner ear as poisoning, and it responds by causing nausea and vomiting. This was proved by inducing vomiting in dogs by giving them poison. The inner ears of the dogs were then removed and the poison was administered again. None of the dogs vomited. (It is interesting to note that people born as deaf mutes never suffer from motion sickness.)

Q. Why is motion sickness more common on a boat than other forms of transport?

A. Because on a boat people are moved in three dimensions at once while on air and land people are usually only moving in one or two dimensions at a time. The word "nausea" itself comes from the Greek word for seasickness.¹⁴

Q. How can I avoid motion sickness?

A. The best way is to plan ahead and take medicine. The most effective is the scopolamine patch, which is worn behind the ear and lasts for days. Most sufferers take Dramamine (or generic equivalent). A more advanced pill is meclezine, sold under the brand names Bonine and Dramamine II. This drug has the advantage of lasting longer than Dramamine and also causing much less drowsiness. The downside of these medications is that they should not be used in conjunction with alcohol, which makes them bad choices for cruise passengers with party spirit.

Sea bands, which are worn around the wrist and provide acupressure, are also popular and some believe them to be effective. These are widely available at boat shops, and there's an FDA-approved model available by prescription, ReliefBand.

If you're feeling seasick, it's best to get out on deck, preferably near the center. Back at the stern is a good place. Keep an eye on distant objects or the horizon. This page has some pretty good -- and frank -- advice.

The important thing to remember is that once you're seasick, there's nothing you can take orally to get well. The vessel's medical officer might give you injections or suppositories after you've been vomiting for a while.

Q. But how can anyone get seasick on such a big ship?

A. Oh man. Remember this: "It's not the size of the boat, it's the motion of the ocean." If you really have to succumb to your queasiness, some people say vomiting off the side and into the water brings a sense of relief not gained by using the bag.

Q. I've seen those bags on airplanes but I've never seen anyone use them. Do people really get airsick?

A. The bags are used much more often on boats, but they are definitely used on planes. The airline industry reports that less than one percent of passengers total get airsick to the point of vomiting, but if airsickness starts in a particular plane, the rate jumps to eight percent. Part of that is the power of suggestion. Vomiting on an airplane is a traumatic experience, especially for a child. It's better to use the bag rather than try to make it to the lavatory and find it occupied.

Constrictor Muscle

http://www.wikihow.com/Induce-Vomiting
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vomiting
http://www.ehow.com/how_2044918_induce-vomiting.html