While hoisting a few at our local tavern, the
conversation turned toward the natural results of too
many beers. One fellow visiting from Germany said that
while in school, he and his friends used to have
contests to see how long one could maintain a stream,
i.e., no drops or dribbles or starting and stopping.
He claims the winner was 3-mintues, 4-seconds, and
this is no myth because he held the stopwatch.
Putting aside the obvious explanation that our German friend was so fried he couldn’t possibly have kept time correctly,
is this humanly possible? What’s the capacity of the human
bladder anyway?
Well, it will certainly vary in size, depending on how big you are, and what your voiding habits are. To a certain extent it depends on what you mean by “capacity”. I know - “how much it will hold, idiot”, but, are you talking raw capacity, or a bladder linked to a functioning central nervous system? An awake, alert, unanesthetized patient will spontaneously void much sooner than someone with, say, an epidural catheter which is preventing the sensation of a full bladder from being perceived. From such patients, I’ve drained 1000cc and clamped the catheter (it was still coming out strong) to prevent bladder spasms. 1500cc is certainly possible, and if you’re a big guy, and have a habit of voiding infrequently, I could see someone “holding it” to that capacity.
To clarify: the patients have epidural catheters for pain control. If they can’t viod, a Foley (urinary) catheter nmay be placed. The post sounded like I drained 1000cc of urine from the epidural… EEEK! “Uh, sometin ain’t right here”
Having just returned from Oktoberfest in Munich where beer is served generously in one litre steins and the lines for relatively scarce facilities are subtsantial - I might suggest that a German may not be the most appropriate individual to use as a benchmark for bladder capacity. In fact, think that my own capacity may have reached new, uncharted levels during the visit.
A reference source I consulted once said that a human can hold a pint of fluid before the need to urinate overtakes the bladder’s ability to hold any more any more fluid.
In my experience of Germany, facilities are sometimes fairly difficult to find, but Germans make up by this with a willingness to void in locations that American find too public.
Joke:
An American woman was walking on a path along side the road and saw a German who had parked his car beside the road standing up ahead urinating on the shoulder of the road. She said, “Oh, Gross!” to which he replied, “Danke!”
Personally? Around 0.8 L. I found this out one day in desperation, when the only bathroom in the apartment was full of a showering roommate, and the only container I could find was a 1.5-L water bottle.
No, I didn’t put it in the fridge and offer it to him later as apple juice…
My volume capacity is 32 oz, exactly. Perhaps as Shaky Jake states I could exceed that in the absence of sensation, but here is my story.
I went to the hospital with heart arrythmia - my heart was jumping around in my chest every 5 seconds or so. Disconcerting. I kinda had to pee when I walked in, but I figured I’d best get started with the health care. The nurse asked what my problem was and I told her. She asked me how I knew, at which point I held her stethoscope to my chest. BOOM! I got past all the waiting folks in the lobby and was flat on my back with a tube in my arm. I tried to tell them I needed to pee, but they kept forgetting. Finally a nurse brought me a bottle, and I filled it. He seemed impressed.
Another time I was in a company meeting for forever and had to pee at least as bad. When the meeting broke I sprinted for the bathroom and got their first. 4 guys used the other urinal while I was standing there with a steady stream.
I dont think it has a set capacity. keno, in the future would you put your question in the subject field? Here is some more info:
“The urinary bladder lies in the pelvis immediately posterior to the pubic symphysis. It is the storage tank
for urine until it is expelled from the body. When full, it projects upward into the lower abdominal cavity.
The bladder is made largely of transitional epithelium (also known as elastic fibers) and involuntary
muscles which allow it to expand as necessary to accommodate varying amounts of urine and also allow it
to contract to empty itself. Inside, the bladder is lined with a mucous membrane that is attached loosely to
the muscular tissues, and the membrane lies in folds called rugae when the bladder is empty. When filled
the bladder’s inner lining is smooth. There is one part of the bladder which is always smooth because it
lacks rugae. This area is called the trigone and it is more tightly attached to the deeper muscle coat. It
extends between the openings of the ureters where they enter into the bladder and at the point of exit of
the urethra from the bladder. The trigone is less wrinkled and more firmly attached because it is partially
responsible for the structure of the areas where urine is being passed into and out of the bladder. In other
words, if these areas were less taut the flow of urine would potentially be hindered by folds of rugae
getting in the way.”
According to Isaac Asimov (in The Annotated Gulliver’s Travels) the average bladder holds about a pound of urine. Using the mnemonic “a pint’s a pound, the world around”, that works out to about a pint, as stated above. Your mileage may vary.
“A pint’s a pound, the world around”? I’ve never heard that one before.
Isn’t a pint 1/4 of a gallon? I’m fairly certain that a US gallon is 3.85 litres, because <obligatory connection to original topic> that’s what it says in the (presumably) “one-gallon” American Standard urinals at work. </original topic> However, an Imperial gallon was 4.something litres. Does that mean that a US pint is smaller than a Canadian pint was?
I’m pretty certain that the US pound is the same size as he canadian pound was…
Where’s my online measurement reference when I need it <grumble>?
Sorry I didn’t phrase the question correctly. The real question is “Can you maintain a stream for 3-minutes, 4-seconds?” From what I see posted, the maximum capacity is about a liter. In order to take 3+ minutes to fill a one liter container, the flow rate couldn’t possibly be described as stream.
I don’t believe the maximum capacity is one liter. According to “Reference Man”, which is a standard work about the sizes of everything in the human body (You want to know how much your tongue weighs. You can find out in this book), the physiological capacity of the human bladder is between 200-250 ml. The total capacity is about 500 ml (or 1/2 a liter).
Physiological capacity is defined as the time when your bladder fills up to the point where you think to yourself, “Hmm, I gotta go to the bathroom.” The total capacity is when you get to the point, “I’ve gotta go to the bathroom or else I’ll have an accident.”
If someone can hold on to a liter of fluid in his/her bladder, I would think you are in for some serious pain.
Slightly off-topic, but according to Malcolm Forbes in They Went That-a-Way, the famous astronomer Tyco Brahe died of a burst bladder. He was dining with a baron and thought it would be rude to get up from the table to pee. He lived eleven days after his bladder burst.
I dunno about timing your micturation, but I used to keep a 2½ quart (2 liter) pitcher in the cuddy cabin of my boat for pissing. Drunken guys being drunken guys, there were always bragging rights about who could fill it the fullest. There were many instances of guys filling it far more than halfway.