Ready, aim, and try to keep your khakis dry. Adjusting your angle and stance at the urinal can prevent you from leaving wet spots on your pants and the floor, says a new Brigham Young University study.
In an attempt to nix "splashback," fluid dynamics researchers at BYU's Splash Lab scientifically broke down your pee stream at the john. (We're totally serious.) No, they didn't load up guys with pints of beer. Instead, the researchers rigged a machine to act as a bladder and pee at the healthy flow rate for a middle-aged man. While the machine kept whizzing, high-speed cameras tracked the amount of spray that was caused from different distances and angles.
The results: First, how close you stand is crucial to keeping your wild stream at bay. After your pee travels so far in the air, that straight blast starts to break up into droplets. These beads of water cause more splatter than a steady flow because they generate "splash crowns" when they hit a surface, which produce small drips that rain upon you, says study author Tadd Truscott, Ph.D.
Then your point of attack is critical. Aim your pee stream closer to the sides of the urinal at a downward slant, and you decrease the "impact angle." (Check out this mesmerizing video to see it in action.) It's like keeping the foam out of your beer: Pour it down the side of the glass instead of straight in.
"These splashing events spread urine all over the place," says Truscott. "Although urine is relatively sterile, it can breed bacteria and isn't a healthy thing." The study didn't stop at the urinals you see at work. When you stand up and pee into a toilet--with its long stream distance--Truscott says things "can get even more complicated" due to unsanitary toilet water splashing up.
His advice: Sit down when you're at home to keep your floor clean and your wife happy--even though your buddies might give you a hard time.
Want to avoid embarrassing pee spots on your pants? Use the guide below to point you in the right--read: drier--direction at the urinal.
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