Hey dorks. A problem for you.

Jihad · #1 12-31-2005, 05:45 PM

My pop once worked this out for me. Its a problem that he came up with after the classic "put the damn toilet seat down" argument with Mom.

The question is, which requires more work:
A. The man always puts the toilet seat down when he's done.
B. The man never changes the position of the toilet seat when he's done.

Some assumptions:
- The seat moving up and down both require the same amount of work, and should obviously be considered as 1 unit of work per movement.

- The woman must always have the seat down.

- The man must always have it down for the deuce, and up for peeing.

- There is exactly 1 man and 1 woman to the toilet seat.

- For the sake of argument, each pees 4 times a day, and drops off the kids 1 time per day.

- The order at which they use the toilet is completely random. The man could go all 5 times, then the woman the next 5, or any combination throughout the day.

If you want to change some of the variables to make the problem more interesting (I don't think its terribly difficult) feel free. I dunno if this is that interesting but alot of you guys flipped out over those physics problem. Maybe this will spark some interesting math stuff. Also, I'm a dork.

-Jihad

DrSavage · #2 12-31-2005, 05:49 PM

Clearly B, common sense is enough to see that.

Jihad · #3 12-31-2005, 05:53 PM

To address that point, you can not argue common sense with women. In the heat of battle they revert to functional retards. You need an equation. Or a knife.

Josh W · #4 12-31-2005, 05:54 PM

The real question is....Why can't women put the toilet seat back UP?

loyalguard · #5 12-31-2005, 05:57 PM

[ QUOTE ]
The real question is....Why can't women put the toilet seat back UP?

[/ QUOTE ]

Because men would like to have sex again!

Warik · #6 12-31-2005, 06:01 PM

Google this and you will find a program that simulates unisex bathroom usage by 100000 of people daily. B is the clear winner. Women need to quit bitching and put the seat down themselves.

Note: I put it down anyway because it looks ugly up.

bisonbison · #7 12-31-2005, 06:03 PM

Link plz.

(I don't want to use google on my days off.)

Jihad · #8 12-31-2005, 06:05 PM

Shat. That pretty much ends it then if you link it. If they don't have the equation, that's what I'm interested in.

UnitBubble · #9 12-31-2005, 06:25 PM

As you worded it, the answer is clearly B.

If the man never changes the toilet position, the units of work used is exactly equal to the number of times that the position of the toilet is changed (let's call this value t).

If the man puts the seat down whenever he finishes and it is up, the number of units of work used is t (from the original problem) + 2*(the number of times that the man put the seat down and used the toilet to piss again before the woman has had to use it).

Please note: t is the same value in both situations.

The interesting question is what is more optimal to split the work 50/50, not what minimizes total work. Also, with different ratios of male:female.

But I have to eat dinner now.

NeedsMoreNuts · #10 12-31-2005, 06:07 PM

I put not only the seat down, but also the seat cover, for one specific reason. Whenever you flush, toilet water sprays out, including piss and tiny pieces of poo. Mythbusters did an episode on this, and revealed that a toothbrush in a bathroom that didn't have a seat cover has a shitload (literally) more bacteria than a toothbrushg in a bathroom with a seat cover.