There is a house where people use the toilet 4 times daily, three times for number ones, and once for number twos. The house rule is you’re meant to leave the toilet seat in the state the next user is most likely to want it. There are five men & two women in the house. Mathematically speaking, should the seat be left up or down?
The first new player to comment on the website with the correct answer wins a free drink at their next iQ Trivia show.
Assuming that women sit all the time and men sit for 2s, then we have 28 daily usages where 13 are seat down and 15 are seat up. So on that basis, leave the seat up.
However, if we assume that you will not be the next user, then it depends on whether you are a man or woman.
If you are a woman, the chance that the next user is another woman or a man doing 2 is 9/24 and the chance it is a man doing a 1 is 15/24. So again, leave it up.
If you are a man, then the chance the next user is a woman or a man doing 2 is 12/24, and the chance it is a man doing a 1 is also 12/24, so a man in that situation is mathematically as well off leaving it up or down, as he pleases (which also equates to my experience growing up in a family of boys).
Plenty of dilemmas can be solved with math.
Though we see no reason to assume that you won’t be the next user. Maybe you’ve been drinking a lot of water and will be back within the hour.