Why does toast always fall onto the floor butter side down?

Answer 1

If you drop a buttered piece of bread, it will fall on the floor butter-side down. If a cat is dropped from a window or other high and towering place, it will land on its feet. But what if you attach a buttered piece of bread, butter-side up to a cat's back and toss them both out the window? Will the cat land on its feet? Or will the butter splat on the ground? Even if you are too lazy to do the experiment yourself you should be able to deduce the obvious result. The laws of butterology demand that the butter must hit the ground, and the equally strict laws of feline aerodynamics demand that the cat can not smash its furry back. If the combined construct were to land, nature would have no way to resolve this paradox. Therefore it simply does not fall. That's right you clever mortal (well, as clever as a mortal can get), you have discovered the secret of antigravity! A buttered cat will, when released, quickly move to a height where the forces of cat-twisting and butter repulsion are in equilibrium. This equilibrium point can be modified by scraping off some of the butter, providing lift, or removing some of the cat's limbs, allowing descent. Most of the civilized species of the Universe already use this principle to drive their ships while within a planetary system. The loud humming heard by most sighters of UFOs is, in fact, the purring of several hundred tabbies. The one obvious danger is, of course, if the cats manage to eat the bread off their backs they will instantly plummet. Of course the cats will land on their feet, but this usually doesn't do them much good, since right after they make their graceful landing several tons of red-hot starship and ticked off aliens crash on top of them. And now a few words on solving the problem of creating a ship using the aforementioned anti-gravity device. One could power a ship by means of cats held in suspended animation (say, about -190 degrees Celsius) with buttered bread strapped to their backs, thus avoiding the possibility of collisions due to tempermental felines. More importantly, how do you steer, once the cats are all held in stasis? I offer a modest proposal: We all know that wearing a white shirt at an Italian restaurant is a guaranteed way to take a trip to the laudromat. Plaster the outside of your ship with white shirts. Place four nozzles symmetrically around the ship, which is, of course, saucer shaped. Fire tomato sauce out in proportion to the directions you want to go. The ship, drawn by the shirts, will automatically follow the sauce. If you use t-shirts, you won't go as fast as you would by using, say, expensive dress shirts. This does not work as well in deep gravity wells, since the tomato sauce (now falling down a black hole, perhaps) will drag the ship with it, despite the counter force of the anti-gravity cat/butter machine. Your only hope at that point is to jettison enormous quantities of Tide. This will create the well-known Gravitational Tidal Force.

Answer 2

In the Mythbusters (2nd Series), Adam and Jamie busted this myth when, in an extensive and highly objective test the toast showed no statistical preference for landing buttered side-down or up when dropped. It was an even 50-50 split when the final results were compared. However, when pushed off the side of a table, toast showed preference to flip once and land buttered side down.

Answer 3

This perplexing and paradoxical scientific problem has already been painstakingly researched and an article subject to peer review already published. See Robert Matthews of Aston University, England, "Tumbling toast, Murphy's Law and the fundamental constants," "European Journal of Physics," vol.16, no.4, July 18, 1995, p. 172-6.

Professor Mathews was awarded the 1996 Ig Nobel Prize at Harvard University for this bit of outstanding research.

Unfortunately, Professor Mathews could not foresee the larger implications of his research. A later researcher posited: When a cat is dropped, it always lands on its feet. And when toast is dropped, it always lands with the buttered side facing down. (citation to Professor Mathew's article)

I propose to strap buttered toast to the back of a cat; the two will hover, spinning inches above the ground. With a giant buttered cat array, a high-speed monorail could easily link New York with Chicago.

Answer 4

Its because when you drop the toast it usally happens by the toast being knocked off the kitchen work top. The distance to the floor only allows it to rotate half way, so it will land butter side down.
For this to happen and land butter side up, you need a work top thats 2.5m high or toast thats 3cm square.
I know this cos i saw it on the tv, dont know why I remember this but I do.

Answer 5

Simply because the buttered side is heavier, so it gets pulled down quicker by gravity, thats why it flips. Strange but true!

Hope i helped a little xx

Answer 6

Somebody did an experiment on that (I know, it was a quiet day in the laboratory). It was something to do with air resistance being less on the butter side.

Answer 7

perhaps its because the buttery side is heavier than the other side cos it has butter on it

Answer 8

simple weight of butter is heaver then than none butterer side.

Answer 9

Because its the heavies side.

Answer 10

I think it's because we don't have luck,or because it weighs a little more on this side! ;)