Have you ever stopped to think of the best way or the right solution!? It’s not easy. Opinions are contradictory. Above all, the question is: do you want to tear away as many sheets as possible or do you want to behave responsibly and use just an appropriate quantity?

It seems that, if we position the toilet roll so that the sheets are torn from the top of the roll – OVER – we waste less paper, while by adopting the opposite solution – UNDER – we can easily help ourselves to the quantity of paper we retain more appropriate … exaggerating, too!

The drawings try and explain this to us. Everything seems to depend on the friction coefficient through which the plies remain coupled and on a game of forces created between the roll, the dispenser and the user. When we try to rip the sheets using one hand and the rolls is positioned with the sheets over it, this friction and the dispenser acting as a pin, exercising a force opposite to that of our gesture, make it possible to tear off one sheet at a time. Instead, if the roll is positioned with the sheets coming from under it, friction is very low and the dispenser applies no resistance. This means that, in trying to tear a piece of toilet paper, an endless unrolling of the sheets to touch the bathroom floor can be the result! The solution to this would then be a manual “re-winding” of the extra sheets back on the roll… hasn’t this happened to all of us at least once?

Opinions on preference are hence really opposite one from the other. OVER is for those who accept to make a little effort in trying to tear off the proper quantity of sheets; UNDER is for fans of excessive comfort and “zero effort”, no matter what. Right or wrong? It is for you to judge!