A new 'golden rule': All mammals take 21 seconds to pee

If you woke up this morning and thought, I'd really like to watch dramatic footage of the earth's creatures gloriously urinating in slow-motion to forgettable indie rock, well, you're in luck! Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have discovered a new "golden rule," as Amar Toor at The Verge oh-so-expertly puts it, for mammals big and small when it comes to emptying their bladders: They all take 21 seconds to pee.

Researchers stumbled on the magic number by lifting the tails of several creatures at the Atlanta Zoo, from rats to cows to elephants. After adjusting for factors like animal size, bladder pressure, and urethra length, they determined — via mathematical models — that all mammals take an average of 21 seconds to relieve themselves.

Unlike previous studies on mammal urination — which is apparently a very real field ripe for exploration — this study, set to be presented next month at the annual convening of the American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics, also accounted for gravity. Scaling in this manner explains why a male elephant's pipe-sized attachment is comparable to a tiny mouse shaking out a few little drops.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Why, though, does a "law of urination" matter? (Other than that it may prove useful should you be waiting in line for the restroom at a busy bar, I mean.) Lead researcher Patricia Yang hopes that studying the fluid dynamics of large mammals will help scientists better treat urinary problems of animals like elephants. According to New Scientist, it may even "inspire new designs for water towers, which also pump water using the force of gravity." Mother Nature sure inspires in strange ways.