I can't speak for women. I know that if you allow young men to gather together for any substantial period of time the conversation will slide into the discussion of body parts and bodily functions. A little too much biology and high school chemistry and the group quickly realizes the potential for creating a flame from gas.

It is simply combining adolescence with the scientific method.

Of course, as the methane burns, it also lights up the sulphur based gases and therefore has the benefit of eliminiting much, if not all, of the smell. Quite a benefit when the males live in close quarters.

If young men don't learn this at home, they learn it at camp (Boy Scouts, YMCA, etc.) or at college (or prep school). Even with a three year hitch in Uncle Sam's Army I heard no tales of lit gas. Perhaps too many of us lived too close together.

Roger in Baltimore