Bremsstrahlung

I am rather frustrated with the stupidity of the design of the sinks in the physics building's bathrooms. The sinks have an elliptical shape, with a major axis of 45 cm and a minor axis of 36 cm. Not only is this far larger than necessary for washing one's hands. Furthermore, the faucet only projects 5 cm out over the sink, meaning that in order put one's hands under the water it is necessary to jam them up against the back edge of the sink. Now, add to this the fact that the water flow is controlled by a motion/proximity sensor. This is a good idea in and of itself, but consider the implementation. The sensor is part of the faucet assembly, rather than the sink, so it can only sense a hand raised above the rim of the sink. Combining this with the close proximity of the water stream to the edge of the sink means that if one places one's hands in the path of the water but high enough to register on the sensor, so as to wash them with a continuous stream of water, it is unavoidable that water will spill out onto the counter around the back of the sink. The only work-around I have found for this is to wash my hands one at a time, holding one under the water and down inside the sink so that the water will to splash out, and the other flat in front of the sensor but out of the path of the water. While this works, it is not very convenient.

I find rather questionable whether the person who designed this setup had any notion how it was to be used, which is peculiar, since I thought that not only are most people in developed countries familiar with the process of washing hands with running water, but that a sink designer certainly would be.