Newton's Toilet Paper

Newton said that an object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. That means that in order to put an object that is at rest into motion, you must act upon it with sufficient force to overcome its weight and any resistance caused by things like friction.  

An example would be the massive rolls of toilet paper used in public bathrooms.  The center core is made from recycled cardboard with a coefficient of friction of sticky sandpaper.  The rolls weigh approximately 27 pounds and the force applied to rotate them is being applied at a tangent, eliminating any advantage of leverage.  For this reason, the paper must be able to apply a force of approximately 120 nM to turn the roll of paper.   

So why then, is the breaking strength of the most public bathroom toilet paper is around .000000000001 nM? 

Good point. I would also like to know why the opening of the dispenser is so often placed so low that I have to lean down to fish the paper out? This is common everywhere and not just stalls that have the handicapp rail installed. Who the berkeley is mounting these things?!

Actually, tangential application of force results in maximum torque.  Radial force results in zero torque.  Get your E36 M3 straight.

Because budget trumps Newton. 

In reply to EastCoastMojo :

Agree! Also why do the regular stall doors open to the inside. Most of the time, there is very little room between the door and the commode. This is not the case for handicap stalls that have massive room but open outward. What gives? Why not have all stall doors open out.

One of the most important lessons I learned was to carry my own paper at work. No matter how E36 M3ty a restroom is I won’t have to worry about paperwork issues.

Maybe it's non-Newtonian toilet paper.

Wally said:

One of the most important lessons I learned was to carry my own paper at work. No matter how E36 M3ty a restroom is I won’t have to worry about paperwork issues.

This. Especially in my construction days, porta John paper is worse than typical bulk roll. I still keep a roll in the truck. 

I keep a roll of the good stuff and a small package of wet wipes in my truck, just in case. Most industrial dispensers have a spring that puts tension on the roll to prevent people from giving it a good spin and unravelling half a roll. My question concerning toilets is why is it that toilets have been around for 3000 years and bicycles have been around for 300 years, but everybody in a 3rd world country has a bicycle but toilets are scarce? I'm still shocked at the lack of proper toilets in North America.

rustybugkiller said:

In reply to EastCoastMojo :

Agree! Also why do the regular stall doors open to the inside. Most of the time, there is very little room between the door and the commode. This is not the case for handicap stalls that have massive room but open outward. What gives? Why not have all stall doors open out.

Because people are idiots and will stand in front of a door that swings out, then act amazed when they get hit by it.

I absolutely adored hitting the exit door of the place I used to work at a fast walk and bouncing it off of whatever customer had decided it would be a good idea to get out of said door and stop for a conversation.

"Sorry, didn't see you there. How's your head?"

These are the same people that get to the top of the escalator and stop to look around. They also try to push onto a fully occupied transit bus, not realising that if they let the people off who are trying to get off, there will be more room for them.

My damn dog knows better than to sleep in front of a door.

Woody said:

Maybe it's non-Newtonian toilet paper.

I think that's called a Bidet

pinchvalve said:

For this reason, the paper must be able to apply a force of approximately 120 nM to turn the roll of paper.   

So why then, is the breaking strength of the most public bathroom toilet paper is around .000000000001 nM? 

 

Why?  Because you would NOT want to wipe you bung hole with a strip of paper with a breaking force of 120nM!

(that’s about 88 ft/pounds for ‘muricans’)

Has anyone noticed that when the paper is really thin I just make up for it by using three miles? If I had normal paper I just need 5 squares.

Robbie said:

Has anyone noticed that when the paper is really thin I just make up for it by using three miles? If I had normal paper I just need 5 squares.

Exactly.  I'm not a scientist, I dont want a breakthrough

Wally said:

One of the most important lessons I learned was to carry my own paper at work. No matter how E36 M3ty a restroom is I won’t have to worry about paperwork issues.

My half-mask respirator bag holds a jumbo roll of the good stuff perfectly. I should make a getup like that for my truck emergency kit too. :)

Those giant industrial rolls of toilet paper are full of toilet paper that is so thin it only has one side.

Bean counters determined that if you only get one E36-Ticket per hand interaction, less is utilized. As this is a provided commodity, not a user-purchased commodity, minimal volumetric usage was determined to be the most desirable trait.

This is why accountants should be given hemorrhoids. 

Our office has two different rolls, every time, in the same stall. One is very thick--little to no chance of breakage--but extremely rough. The other is basically tissue paper and worthless. 

When I lived in a more rural area, I used to carry TP with me in the car just in case--I'd used two bathrooms on my commute, and both had left me nervous. Now I'm never far enough away from a reputable establishment in case of emergency, so it isn't worth worrying about, but this thread is making me want to put a roll and some baby wipes in my trunk just in case.

I'm just glad to see that the discussion hasn't inappropriately broached the topic of Brownian motion.

Why did you mix metric and British units?  Geesh.  Makes my head hurt.  Next thing you're going to tell me is you need a Whitworth spanner to change the roll!

rustybugkiller said:

In reply to EastCoastMojo :

Agree! Also why do the regular stall doors open to the inside. Most of the time, there is very little room between the door and the commode. This is not the case for handicap stalls that have massive room but open outward. What gives? Why not have all stall doors open out.

On that subject. Why do American stalls have gaps large enough to fit a large toddler through? I didn't see that in any European country I visited.

aircooled said:

pinchvalve said:

For this reason, the paper must be able to apply a force of approximately 120 nM to turn the roll of paper.   

So why then, is the breaking strength of the most public bathroom toilet paper is around .000000000001 nM? 

 

Why?  Because you would NOT want to wipe you bung hole with a strip of paper with a breaking force of 120nM!

(that’s about 88 ft/pounds for ‘muricans’)

One must be pretty angry with the paper to test it's twisting failure strength.  

Since paper acts more like a rope, then it will break with a linear force- so it would be in N or lbf.  

(BTW, nM?  It's Nm.  If it were 1000, it would be kNm. Newton is a name, so it gets caped, meter is not)

And to follow up on AC's post, to get 120 Nm from a 0.000000000001 N force, the roll would have a radius of 12,000,000,000,000 m.  or 12,000,000,000 km.  Which is considerably larger than the sun (by about 20,000x).  So, based on my observations of public restrooms, that's pretty accurate.  

Doors that open in can be barricaded from inside. Just in case.

In reply to alfadriver :

Sure is Handy having a computer in the bathroom isn't it? You can answer all kinds of silly questions while you're sitting there thinking.

TRoglodyte said:

In reply to alfadriver :

Sure is Handy having a computer in the bathroom isn't it? You can answer all kinds of silly questions while you're sitting there thinking.

Smart phones sure are a time saver, aren't they?