It's a strange, strange world we live in, Master Jack.

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Does a dropped piece of buttered toast usually land buttered-side down?

You know the problem -- drop a piece of buttered toast and it hits the floor butter side down. But does it really happen more often than not? Or is it just that we remember those times because they are more annoying than the equal number of times it lands dry side down?
Toast typically lands on the floor butter-side-down due to the manner in which it is typically dropped from a table. As the toast falls from the table, it rotates. Given the typical speed of rotation for a slice of toast as it falls from the table and the typical height of a table, a slice of toast that began butter-side-up on the table will land butter-side-down on the floor in 81% of cases.

Source: [The not all-that-reliable] Daily Mail Online
I recall a Peanuts comic strip from back in the day in which Lucy and Linus are looking out the window at the rain.

"Why," Lucy asks, "does it always rain when I want to do something?"
Linus patiently explains that it doesn't, but she remembers those times because they are disappointing and forgets the other times when she gets to do what she wants without interference.
Lucy glares at him and says more emphatically, "Why does it ALWAYS rain when I want to do something?"
Linus backs down: "You're just very unlucky."
 
On a side note, the buttered cat paradox is a common joke based on the tongue-in-cheek combination of two adages:
  • Cats always land on their feet.
  • Buttered toast always lands buttered side down.
The paradox arises when one considers what would happen if one attached a piece of buttered toast (butter side up) to the back of a cat, then dropped the cat from a large height.

Some have suggested that the result would be anti-gravity because neither the cat nor the toast would be able to touch down.

On yet another side note, the Daily Mail Online story sounds real in part  because it includes a statistic: 81%. On the other hand, there is also an adage that says 42% of statistics are made up on the spot.

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