Strange topic today, but I couldn't resist talking about it. Men, you might know what I'm talking about. Women, just nod your head as if you know what I'm talking about and try not to laugh too hard at me. Remember what I said a while back? This is MY blog and I'll write what I want to!
Okay, so I took a leak the other day. In fact, I take several leaks every day. Now, as you know, in public bathrooms for men there are urinals. This is the case in the bathrooms we have at work. When you piss into a urinal you notice that there is a certain amount of urine that splashes out of the urinal. I hope this isn't too personal, but as an engineer I like to experiment with ways to minimize the splashing.
So the options are...
1. Aim for the the small pool of water in the bottom of the urinal.
2. Aim for the back center of the urinal, the furthest back point in the urinal.
3. Aim for the side of the urinal while standing on that side, to minimize the incident angle with which the stream hits the porcelain.
It's not 100% clear to me which option is best, and there is probably not an answer that applies to all situations because there are many different styles of urinals. But I tend to think that the third option might be the best. So if any of you ever see me standing in front of a urinal in such a way that I am not centered with the urinal, now you know why. Not that you should be looking, I'm just saying.
Interestingly, I did a search on this subject and found a few links.
From WikiHow.com:
"How to Use a Urinal Without Splashing Yourself"
http://www.wikihow.com/Use-a-Urinal-Without-Splashing-Yourself
Key quote: "The best way to avoid these splashback situations is to angle the stream so that it follows a curve along the back surface and gently flows down into the bottom. By hitting the urinal wall at an obtuse angle, the urine will flow easier to its intended destination instead of your nice slacks."
From Poopreport.com (hey, I only found this via a search, I do NOT read this regularly!):
"Urine trouble: keeping pee where it belongs" by SamDamnit
http://www.poopreport.com/BMnewswire/urine_trouble.html
Key quote: "Someone known only as 'Dr. Rick' posits that there is a urinal sweet spot (an unfortunate term if I have ever heard one). He even goes so far as to narrow it down for us: 'The best place to aim is about 4-6" above the bottom of the urinal. This seems to direct any splashback directly into the pool, cake, holes, whatever, while slowing the urine enough as to prevent splash-up.'"
Basically, aim down but not for the very bottom. The link shows some tricks that people use to get guys to aim for the right spot. Interestingly, the so-called "sweet spot" used to be a lot "sweeter" with full length (built all the way down to the floor) urinals. When you hit it, the stream hit the urinal as much less of a direct angle. But alas, they don't seem to be making those anymore. Furthermore, on many urinals the "sweet spot" is not vertical but it is sloping out from the wall, so that if you aim there you're hitting the porcelain at close to a 90 degree angle--not good.
One more link, from Ars Technica:
"On Modern Urinals..."
http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=278243
One of the comments echoes my thoughts about full length urinals.
"Actually, I disagree: full-size urinals tend to give me less splashback. You can angle the stream straight down the back of the urinal. With the regular urinals you gotta work a bit to get the right angle along the side to avoid splashback."
Maybe someday I'll be able to tell my grandchildren about the glorious days of full-length urinals...
No comments:
Post a Comment