Question

Let’s say that the invention of indoor plumbing and central water heating decreases the time it takes to bathe by two hours a week. Before these advances, a typical person spent 4 hours a week bathing. However, when these advances came to pass the amount of time spent bathing per week did not decline. In fact, people actually spent 4.5 hours a week bathing. How can this be? Please explain. There are at least two reasons.

Answer 1

Hello!

One reason for unexpected behavior of the people could be that since it takes less time per bath now, so instead of keeping of the number of baths constant, they could have actually increased the number of baths and the time spent in bathing could have marginally increased from 4 hrs to 4.5 hrs instead of declining.

Also, the number of baths and hence the total hours spent bathing could have increased due to improved services like central water heating and more availability of water due to indoor plumbing. People might have started enjoying the bath more and hence, number of baths could have increased.