Mathematical Way to Choose a Toilet - Numberphile

Toilets at musical festivals are notorious - but how many should you check before committing!?
More links & stuff in full description below ↓↓↓

Animation: Pete McPartlan
Featuring Dr Ria Symonds from the University of Nottingham.

NUMBERPHILE

Videos by Brady Haran

[FlorianHassanen]

if you happen to attend a maths festival instead, you just pick the first toilet no matter what, since it will be in pristine condition, because every other attendee will skip it due to this video

[JakeCakeful]

I always have a more psychological approach to picking a toilet, rather than the mathematic. Always pick one of the toilets facing out towards the road, people are much more unlikely to use those toilets. So even though it's a little shameful to walk out to people staring, those toilets are almost perfectly clean because people want to use those facing away from staring people. Just some good advice. Pretty much choose the toilet that seems the most awkward from the outside, since it will be the nicest from the inside.

[SebTsch]

Instructions unclear, I pissed myself.

[elishahar]

years of learning mathematics put to the ultimate test
HOW TO CHOOSE A TOILET

[robertyang]

0:33 Professor J Grime

James Grime

LOL

[crabstickz]

What are the chances of me pissing my pants by time I've done the maths?...oh wait. Never mind. 

[Fifth_Ace]

the problem is, that in real life all the toilets look like 3. Hence that is the best option, hence your real chance of picking the best one is 100%.

[ChessNetwork]

Q: How to determine which video to watch from your subscriptions?
A: 'Choose' the one with 'toilet' in the title.

[nihilist]

What if I told you that not a single toilet in festival area is clean

[minmax]

This is assuming there are any clean toilets of course lol 

[lschlickmkw]

Reverse psychology:
Now I know to go to the first toilets because everyone will go to the later ones. Reverse reverse psychology:
People will probably choose the first toilets knowing that everyone else will choose the later toilets, so I should choose the later toilets.

[TheGrooseIsLoose]

So if I take the world population of women in my age range, plus some random polling results about how many women are single, I find that I have to date 42 million women, then marry the first one that's better than the previous 42 million, or the last one. What an interesting breakup line: "It isn't you; it's the fact that you're only number 39, 863, 264. I haven't hit 37% yet!"

[PawlOwl]

lol, i have to date 37% of all women in the world before i can settle down? 

[candycorncrafts]

If the first one looks like 1 or 2, don't waste your time and take it!

[AlanKey]

Ooh... this video got a bit Meta.
We get to *choose* which video we watch - continue with video 1 or switch to video 2???
It's like a maths problem in and of itself!

[Guywithcrazyideas]

Realism  vs. math / theory do not match when dealing with this subject.  Trust me.

[kodyonthekeys]

Anyone else see Prof. J Grime graffitied on bathroom 4's wall?

Great attention to detail. haha

[rahulkanchangaikwad]

bring your own toilet belore it's toolet

[jameshiggins-thomas]

Is there a variation of this when the number of "toilets" is unknown? Although I've (luckily) not needed to job search often, but when I have I noted that there is a challenge - from both sides of the desk: how to choose the "best" fit given that you have a limited time to say yeah/nay to each possible. For example, as the employer, when you find a possible fit, do you go ahead and extend an offer or keep looking for a better fit (risking the former moving on)? As a job seeker, do you accept an offer or keep looking for a better package (risking either a poorer later option or none at all)?

[James]

It strikes me that the best option is to pick the toilet that is the hardest to get to and use that. Unless all the toilets are constantly in use, that is the one that will receive the least use and therefore probably be the cleanest.