Got this wild question stuck in my head after a dumb bar bet last weekend: how many golf balls could actually fit inside a human stomach? Sounded impossible, but hey, I like testing stupid stuff. Grabbed my notepad and started. First step? Measuring.
The Setup & Research
Dug out an old sleeve of practice golf balls from the garage. Standard size, obviously. Measured one: roughly 4.3 cm across. Volume? Forget fancy science terms, I just dunked one in my measuring cup filled with water and saw how much it rose. Yeah, primitive. Looked like about 40 milliliters per ball. Okay, baseline.
Next, human stomach capacity. Off to the laptop. Found out from some medical stuff online:
- Empty & Hungry: Stomach shrinks down, maybe holds just 50-100 ml, like a shot glass.
- Normal Full: After a decent meal, around 1 to 1.5 liters.
- Stuffed Ridiculous: The point before puking? Apparently it can stretch to 3 or even 4 liters in rare cases. Ouch.
Bingo. The max capacity was my target. Couldn’t test that myself for real golf balls (obviously!), but I could simulate the volume.
The (Safe) Ingestion Simulation
Time to play pretend. Used dry white beans instead of actual golf balls – way safer and about the same size. Got a big jar of them. Cleared my schedule after lunch on Tuesday.
Started slow, just drinking water and swallowing mouthfuls of beans every 20 minutes or so. Kept track:
- After 1 cup of beans + 500ml water: Feeling full like after Thanksgiving dinner. Annoying but manageable.
- Added another half cup + 250ml water: Okay, now this seriously sucked. Heavy pressure right under my ribs. Couldn’t bend over well. Breathing got shallow.
- Tried forcing down a few more mouthfuls. Big mistake. Got that awful “I’m definitely gonna throw up” feeling instantly. That was my hard limit. Called it quits.
The Shocking Math (Well, To Me Anyway)
Measured how many beans I’d actually swallowed. Counted them later when I felt human again (that took hours, felt like concrete in my guts). Came to about 500 beans.
Now, comparing golf ball volume (40ml each) to bean volume:
- If my stomach stretched to that painful, almost-puking max volume (say 4 liters or 4000ml)…
- 4000ml ÷ 40ml per ball = 100 golf balls.
Using my bean count as a rough guide (since they were similar size), 500 beans felt agonizingly full. Divide that by 5 (since beans are less dense?), you get… shockingly close to 100.
The Painful Conclusion
Sat there burping beans for the rest of the day. Felt bloated and stupid. But the numbers kinda lined up. Theoretically, 100 standard golf balls could cram into a human stomach stretched to its absolute, painful, nauseating maximum. Maybe a few more for some folks, maybe less. It’s NOT comfortable, it’s NOT safe, and swallowing even one actual golf ball is a great way to end up in the ER needing surgery.
Why do I do these things? Curiosity kills the cat (or just gives it terrible indigestion). Now I know, and honestly? I kinda wish I didn’t. That bean aftermath was brutal. Anyone need a barely-used bag of dry beans?
