How math helps you find the best porta potty

The next time you’re in line to use a portable bathroom at a fair, concert, or other event, you might want to use the math to choose a potty. Yes, you heard it right, mathematician.

Secretary problem, mathematical theory can be your best solution for this. But if you literally cringe when you hear the name Math, and no one there would blame you, you can always pick the best Porta-Potty without a formula; Just use Porties!

But for the sake of some harmless fun, let’s get back to the toilet math:

Toilet sports: a demonstration

Don’t panic next time you drink a large amount of Pepsi at a concert or festival and have to come in direct contact with portable toilets. According to a series of recent mathematical experiments, there is an ideal value that can be taken into account. For example, consider a sample design consisting of 3 different toilets. Let’s call the leftmost toilet number 1. Toilet 1 is amazingly clean, very much cleaner than the third toilet. The middle toilet is labeled number 2 and is a bit dirtier than the first toilet. Toilet number 3? A complete disaster area. For obvious reasons, real-time toilets will not be limited to 3 toilets and will not be ordered fun. However, for this demo, we’ll stick to the three toilets required.

There are 6 different permutations; A different number of possible ways a group of toilets can be arranged in this model. This means that your probability of hitting toilet #1 gets worse as more and more toilets keep being added. However, with only 3 toilets, you have a 50% chance of choosing toilet 1 if you follow the golden rule of refusing the first toilet you log off and switching to the portable potty which is, you guessed it, the best one yet. In all six possibilities, there is a 50% probability of winning the jackpot.

What if there were more toilets in this case:

As mentioned earlier, adding more toilets lowers your odds of choosing the most fun toilet of all. If the offer above had 4 toilets to choose from instead of 3, the success rate would drop to about 46 percent. With each new toilet flushed on the model, your odds of success drop by about 4%. The simulation shown works decently in cases of limited toilets, obviously. However, many events offer much more restrooms. In order to work on a larger scale, another mathematical answer appears. See the following text to learn the real trick (other than just using Porties) to find the best Porta potty out of a larger selection using math.

Best shot

Mathematical theories suggest that you will have the best chance of finding the cleanest toilet by identifying exactly 37% of the toilets out of the total number of toilets. After you sign off at 37%, you can then follow the “best yet” rule. After testing 37% of the toilets, move on to the next toilet you find looks better than all the toilets you’ve already tested. For example, if there are 100 toilets at a concert, you have to peek through 37 of them to get past the tipping point. Only then does your choice of which toilet after that look better than all the bathrooms you’ve seen before, with a higher rate of positive results in doing so.

There you have it now how to use math when trying to choose the best porta potty. No one could imagine in their wildest dreams that toilets and math have much to do with each other. Next time you get into a dangerous toilet situation, test this mathematical theory of the secretary problem. You might be surprised how a little math can go a long way when it comes to choosing the most enjoyable toilet.