Here's a harmless one: if you're unusually well-endowed, how likely is it that you're the biggest among 40 adult recruits?
Before anybody gets carried away
This is a mathematical thought experiment. It does not describe actual recruits, military policies, or a study of barracks. Nobody is claiming that instructors or fellow recruits measure men's genitals. In shared spaces, the sensible rule is privacy and respect.
The platoon-sized example
Suppose you're at the 95th percentile in an erect-length reference model. Put you in a hypothetical 40-man group. The probability all 39 other adults are below you is 0.95^39, about 13.5%.
At the 99th percentile: 0.99^39, or about 67.6%. That's the difference between being impressively uncommon and exceptionally uncommon.
What if you're precisely average? 0.5^39 is effectively zero. Again, this is because we've fixed your hypothetical percentile. If we don't know your measurement and everyone is sampled identically, every man has the same 1-in-40 chance of being largest.
Reality is messier than the formula
Recruits may differ in age, recruitment region, and other characteristics. The published studies are not a validated model of a particular training cohort. Flaccid size is not a reliable substitute for erect measurement. And statistical probabilities can't identify real men.
Think of it as a board-game mechanic: choose your percentile, pick your group size, see how fast the chance changes. That's all.
The character test is much less complicated
In training, a guy earns respect for doing his job, helping the person struggling next to him, and not making an already uncomfortable shared environment worse. Nobody needs to be the biggest anything to deserve basic dignity.
If the genetic lottery gave you an entertaining statistical distinction, enjoy the thought privately. The people sharing your barracks are teammates, not data points you have permission to inspect.
Interactive: Model your own group size. Evidence: Veale et al..
Use our penis size calculator to compare measurements with clinical reference data. The result is a statistic, not a grade.
Check your stats →