engineering

Pig toilet

Pig toilet is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Pig toilet rather than just read about it. In short: A pig toilet (Chinese: 猪圈茅坑 zhūjuànmáokēng, sometimes called a "pig sty latrine") is a simple type of dry toilet consisting of an outhouse mounted over a pigsty, with a chute or hole connecting the two. The pigs consume the feces of the users of the toilet, as well as other food.

Key takeaways

Pig toilet belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Pig toilet to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Pig toilet from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

A pig toilet (Chinese: 猪圈茅坑 zhūjuànmáokēng, sometimes called a "pig sty latrine") is a simple type of dry toilet consisting of an outhouse mounted over a pigsty, with a chute or hole connecting the two. The pigs consume the feces of the users of the toilet, as well as other food. The pigs raised on human excrement are subsequently used as a food source, which can raise health concerns.

History Pig toilets were once common in rural China, where a single Chinese character (Chinese: 圂; pinyin: hùn) signifies both "pigsty" and "privy". Funerary models of pig toilets from the Han dynasty (206 BC to AD 220) prove that it was an ancient custom. These arrangements have been strongly discouraged by the Chinese authorities in recent years, although as late as 2005 they could still be found in remote northern provinces.

Chinese influence may have spread the use of pig toilets to Okinawa (Okinawan: ふーる (fūru) / 風呂) before World War II, and also to the Manchu people during the Qing dynasty period. Pig toilets were also used in parts of India such as Goa. A 2005 survey of sanitary arrangements in Goa and Kerala found that 22.7% of the population still used pig toilets. More recent surveys show significant decline in unsanitary latrine usage, with only 2% of Kerala still using non-flushing toilets, and unsanitary pig rearing being broadly banned in Goa. On Jejudo, a volcanic island of South Korea that is home to a breed of black pig, the pig toilets were known as dottongsi (Korean: 돗통시). These pigsty toilets were still in use in the 1960s.

Fishpond toilet In China, "Family dwellings are commonly built close to the fish pond with toilets overhanging the pond to facilitate fertilization. ... Some pigsties as well as latrines for humans are built on the adjacent dike so as to overhang the pond." By 1988, these fish pond toilets were falling out of favour, as the farmers found it more useful to ferment human and pig excrement together, and apply it to the aquaculture ponds as needed. In Vietnam, the traditional fish pond toilet, which was described as "widespread" as recently as 2008, polluted the waterways, but was perceived as more hygienic (less odorous) than various modern alternatives that the government was pressing on the villagers.

See also Coprophagia History of water supply and sanitation Toilet god

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Pig toilet

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Pig toilet claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Pig toilet before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Pig toilet ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Pig toilet

In research: Pig toilet appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Pig toilet in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Pig toilet is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Buildings and structures used to confine animals, Pig farming, Toilets, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Pig toilet outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Pig toilet in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Pig toilet means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Pig toilet out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Pig toilet in simple terms?

Why does Pig toilet matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Pig toilet?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Pig toilet.