Toilet Seat Statistics

It has long been the burden of men to leave the toilet seat down after going #1, so that women do not have to move it every time they use the throne. However, we are well into the 21st century and I think it's time for more toilet seat equality. This gentleman breaks down the problem pretty well.

There are several different goals:

• Reduce the overall number of times the seat must "move positions"
  
• Disperse the burden of moving the seat evenly between the genders
• Mind the gender distribution of the household

For instance, while women need the seat in position 2 100% of the time, men may only need it down 30% of the time.

Gender	% Position 2	Position Breakdown
1 Woman	100%	33% Position 1
1 Man	33%	66% Position 2

In this situation, you can see that it's still more statistically fair to leave the toilet seat down. When you have two men in the household, things take a turn.

Gender	% Position 2	Position Breakdown
1 Woman	100%	61.4% Position 1
2 Men	%16.6	38.6% Position 2

Now, politeness dictates leaving the toilet seat up when you are finished. The real problem gets more complicated when you consider that a toilet seat must be moved twice to put it back in its original position, but only once if you are to leave it in another.


There's a really good article here which gives the problem a Game Theory perspective.