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Among urinal prototypes, the tall, slender design with curves reminiscent of a seashell, seen here second from the right, accommodates people of a wide range of heights, all but eliminating splashback.
在小便池原型中，高挑、细长的曲线设计让人联想到贝壳，如图右二所示，可以容纳各种身高的人，几乎消除了飞溅。
Some things in life don't require any reinvention (the wheel springs to mind!), but according to a team of physicists from Canada's University of Waterloo, the adage "if it ain't broke, don't fix it," doesn't apply to men's bathroom facilities.
生活中有些东西根本不需要重新发明(比如车轮!)，但加拿大滑铁卢大学的一组物理学家表示，“如果它没坏，就不要修它”这句谚语并不适用于男人的洗手间设施。
Contents 内容
A New Splashless Urinal Design 一种新的无溅便池设计
The Physics of Urinal Design 小便池设计的物理学
The Spiral Nautilus Inspires the "Nauti-loo" “鹦鹉螺号”的灵感来源
A New Splashless Urinal Design 一种新的无溅便池设计
At the American Physical Society's Division of Fluid Dynamics meeting in Indianapolis in fall 2022, the team made a splash with a design for a urinal that, well, doesn't. The splashless urinal's shape is inspired by the geometry of a nautilus shell, and prevents droplets from leaving the bowl.
在2022年秋季于印第安纳波利斯举行的美国物理学会流体力学分部会议上，该团队设计的一款便池引起了轰动。无溅便池的形状灵感来自鹦鹉螺壳的几何形状，防止液滴离开碗。
The team identified the need for a better urinal in exactly the way you'd expect. "We are physicists. We use urinals. We all got splashback on our tan pants sometimes and [on our] bare feet in summer, and were embarrassed," says Dr. Zhao Pan, assistant professor of mechanical and mechatronics engineering at the University of Waterloo, via email. He is the head of the lab that created the idea for the new urinal, dubbed the "Nauti-loo."
该团队以你所期望的方式确定了一个更好的小便池的需求。“我们是物理学家。我们用小便池。我们有时会把水溅到棕褐色的裤子上，夏天也会把水溅到光脚上，这让我们很尴尬，”滑铁卢大学机械与机电工程助理教授赵潘博士在电子邮件中说。他是发明这款被称为“鹦鹉尿”的新便池的实验室负责人。
Droplets don't stay in a typical urinal, explained research assistant Kaveeshan Akan Thurairajah, because "current designs are not optimized to prevent splash, and often have this as an afterthought. You can study science, engineering and mathematics, and head to the bathroom after class and get droplets on your pants. If we can get a man on the moon, a rover on Mars and split the atom, then surely, we can pee without splashing."
研究助理Kaveeshan Akan Thurairajah解释说，液滴不会停留在一个典型的小便池中，因为“目前的设计并没有优化到防止飞溅，而且通常是事后才考虑的。你可以学习科学、工程和数学，下课后去洗手间，裤子上都是飞沫。如果我们能把人送上月球，把月球车送上火星，还能分裂原子，那么当然，我们尿尿也能不溅水花。”
The Physics of Urinal Design 小便池设计的物理学
While it may seem simple, there is in fact quite a bit of physics involved in urinal design. The slope and angle of the porcelain, plus the height of the person using it and the force of the stream all dictate whether splashing happens. When the University of Waterloo team used dyed water and a mock ureter to simulate the use of a standard urinal, they saw significant splashing. Those drops would have ended up all over people's legs and feet and the bathroom floor.
虽然看起来很简单，但事实上，小便池的设计涉及到很多物理知识。瓷器的倾斜度和角度，加上使用瓷器的人的高度和水流的力量都决定了是否会溅起水花。当滑铁卢大学的研究小组使用染色水和模拟输尿管来模拟标准便池的使用时，他们看到了明显的飞溅。这些水滴最终会流到人们的腿上、脚上和浴室的地板上。
"Most of us do realize that droplets are being spread, but probably don't realize how bad it is," says Thurairajah. "This is partly due to the fact that sticky floors are the result of multiple trips, and also the biases in our head; clearly the mess is others' and not myself."
Thurairajah说:“我们大多数人都意识到飞沫正在传播，但可能没有意识到它有多糟糕。”“部分原因是由于多次旅行导致地板黏糊糊的，还有我们大脑中的偏见;很明显，这是别人的问题，不是我的。”
In reality, unless it's been recently and thoroughly cleaned, the average bathroom is absolutely covered in droplets.
事实上，除非最近彻底打扫过，否则普通的浴室里肯定布满了飞沫。
To solve the problem, the scientists focused on one splash factor, says Thurairajah, called "impinging angle." In other words, the angle at which the stream and the porcelain meet. They found that, below 30 degrees, there was no splash. "Thus, we called this a critical angle," he says. "We wanted a curve which always intersects the trajectory at this angle. This is the same curve as a nautilus shell."
Thurairajah说，为了解决这个问题，科学家们专注于一个飞溅因素，称为“撞击角”。换句话说，就是水流和瓷器相遇的角度。他们发现，在30度以下，没有水花。“因此，我们称之为临界角度，”他说。“我们想要一条总是在这个角度与轨迹相交的曲线。这与鹦鹉螺壳的曲线相同。”
The Spiral Nautilus Inspires the "Nauti-loo" “鹦鹉螺号”的灵感来源
The nautilus is a kind of mollusk — a relative of the squid and octopus — that moves by expelling water from its shell. The shell's spiral shape is considered mathematically "perfect"; it's a visual representation of the Fibonacci sequence, which was introduced in the Middle Ages as part of the foundation of natural geometry.
鹦鹉螺是一种软体动物，是乌贼和章鱼的亲戚，靠从壳中排出水分来移动。贝壳的螺旋形状在数学上被认为是“完美的”;它是斐波那契数列的一种视觉表现形式，斐波那契数列是在中世纪作为自然几何基础的一部分引入的。
This image shows the interior of a pearly nautilus shell, also known as a chambered nautilus (Nautilus pompilius), with its smooth, depressed whorl sections.
这张照片显示了珍珠状鹦鹉螺壳的内部，也被称为有腔鹦鹉螺(nautilus pompilius)，其平滑，凹陷的螺旋部分。
The nautilus shell has been an emblem of math and science since the days of the ancient Greeks, who considered its symmetrical shell a symbol of perfection. It's the name Jules Verne gave to Captain Nemo's submarine in his novel "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea," and the title of a popular science magazine.
自古希腊人认为对称的鹦鹉螺壳是完美的象征以来，鹦鹉螺壳一直是数学和科学的象征。这是儒勒·凡尔纳在他的小说《海底两万里》中给尼莫船长的潜艇起的名字，也是一本科普杂志的标题。
Now, it may also become known as the inspiration for, and namesake of, a better place to pee.
现在，它也可能成为一个更好的小便场所的灵感来源。
"The next steps are securing intellectual property protection and then manufacturing," says Thurairajah. "We do hope to see this in bathrooms." Switching to the Nauti-loo, the scientists hope, will make bathrooms a more sanitary place, and help "save water, chemicals and the effort required to clean."
“下一步是确保知识产权保护，然后是制造，”Thurairajah说。“我们确实希望在浴室里看到这种情况。”科学家们希望，换成鹦鹉厕将使浴室变得更卫生，并有助于“节省水、化学品和清洁所需的精力”。
