Post created by Jael
In a witty Netflix Original Series, Grace and Frankie, two businesswomen take on the adventure of life together. Their product ideas target older women and men. In an episode, Grace, who is 80 years old, is having a difficult time coming off the toilet. The toilet is too low and her bad knees are not able to lift her out of the seat. Frankie then comes up with an idea of a toilet that can lift its seat to assist someone to come off the toilet. She named her toilet "The Bottoms Up". Her first prototype consisted of a toilet whose seat ejects someone off the toilet, lifting the seat at a 45-degree angle using springs. This prototype proved unsafe when a test-mannequin was placed on the toilet and it flew across the room. That is when Grace suggested to Frankie the use of hydraulics.
I wanted to calculate the force needed to lift an average elderly person off the toilet seat.
I used Pascal's Principle of F1/A1=F2/A2
I first gathered my needed measurements:
The average elderly person according to MedicalNewsToday is 164.7lbs for 60 years old and above. Which is 1614 N
The average toilet seat inner circle dimensions are 8in X 11.5in
I am using a hydraulic system that would be installed at the toilet's tank using a valve of 3in X 3in
F1 = ?, A1 = 289.03 in, F2 = 1614.06 N, A2 = 28.27 in
after rearranging the original equation F1 = 16502.0 N
In conclusion, if Frankie were to use a hydraulic system she would need a force of at least 16502.0 N to lift an average elderly person off the toilet seat.
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