Do you know how long it takes you to empty your bladder? How about your cat, dog or horse? Do you reckon that the time will be more or less for the elephants at the zoo? Would it surprise you to learn that there is absolutely no difference?
It turns out that it takes 21 seconds for a healthy mammal – of any species – to empty a full bladder. As you might expect, an elephant has a much larger bladder than a mouse, but the mechanism for emptying it compensates so that the peeing time is exactly the same.
This amazing discovery was made by Patricia Yang, a mechanical engineer based at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and the research earned her an “Ig Nobel Prize” – this being an award given to scientists whose work is either absurd or bizarre. In this case, the “bizarre” label seems to be more appropriate, as it conjures up a vision of the lady in question going round her local zoo armed with a stopwatch and waiting for various animals to go to the loo.
Patricia Yang did not stop there. She also worked out that all animals that poop in cylindrical form - including humans – take twelve seconds to do so. Personally, it always takes me a lot longer because I take the newspaper with me to the smallest room!
© John Welford
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