Mathematicians discover universal law of mammal urination [View all]

[meegbear]

Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta have arrived at a universal law of urination that explains why dogs, goats, cows and elephants — male and female — all take approximately 21 seconds to empty their bladders. According to New Scientist, the research team studied local zoo animals and hours of YouTube videos to arrive at their results.

Patricia Yang and her colleagues study fluid dynamics and specifically how animals interact with liquids. The team previously used high-speed imaging to determine how dogs shake themselves dry.

The new research took into account each animal’s mass, bladder pressure and urethra size as it studied videos of several different species of mammals peeing. Investigators were able to create a mathematical model of urinary systems across species, explaining why divergent groups of mammals spend roughly the same amount of time emptying their bladders.

“Previous models,” explained New Scientist, “have only considered the effects of bladder pressure, but the length of the urethra turns out to be important as well.” Yang told the publications, “Most of the research is on humans or animals smaller than humans,” and in these animals, gravity is not a huge factor in the rate at which the bladder empties.

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http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/10/18/mathematicians-discover-universal-law-of-mammal-urination/

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