- Some male thinkers seeking to prove the 'always put it down' rule wrong have found some reasons men should start leaving it up
- To minimize total movements of the toilet seat, Jay Pil Choi of Michigan State University reveals you should leave it in whatever position you use
- To equalize the effort between men and women, Richard Harter found that men should only put the seat down about half the time
In order to help end the age-old battle between men and women over the position of the toilet seat, scientists have turned to mathematical models to reveal the upsides and downsides to the 'always leave it down' rule favored by women.
These thinkers, both men, each looked at the problem in different ways: one sought to determine the best way to equalize the lifting and dropping efforts of both men and women in a particular household while the other set out to uncover a method of minimizing the number of times the seat is moved.
Both their conclusions would reduce the frequency of men having to move the seat.
For Michigan State University professor of economics Jay Pil Choi, the goal was to minimize the number of times a household's toilet is moved.
Choi's analysis found that-- in the straightforward scenario where a man an woman alternate their use of the toilet--the best way to minimize effort is to simply leave the seat in the position you've used it.
The man will have to lift the seat each time he urinates but not when he defecates and the woman will have to lower it each time she urinates, but not if the man has defecated before her.
Because no one will have to move the seat more than once per bathroom visit, effort will be minimized.
So, what if your goal is to make equitable the amount of effort a man and woman must exert?
Writer Richard Harter has answered that quandary in a paper published in Science Creative Quarterly called 'A Game Theoretic Approach to the Toilet Seat Problem.'
In his scenario, Harter found--using cold, hard math--that the effort is roughly equaled when the woman leaves the seat where she found it and the man puts it down about half the time after urinating and in the evening 'to avoid the notorious "middle of the night surprise."'
'I expect that this analysis should settle the toilet seat controversey for once and for all - if John and Marsha are mathematicians,' Harter writes.
Another toilet strategy tinkerer, Reddit user JeffSergeant created a chart that examines these and other strategies and shows the breakdown of how each gender is affected.
His calculations mirror Choi's, but also reveal the least efficient toilet seat method would be for everyone to leave it up, followed by flipping a coin and then the female favorite of everyone leaving it down.