Abstract: A statistically significant set of results from tossing slices of buttered bread on to a dirty floor seems to confirm the validity of Murphy's law.
Physicists working with a large-scale toaster and butterknife apparatus at Purdue University have observed a statistically significant above-expectation proportion of random buttered toast tosses in which the toast landed with the buttered side down. The research team hypothesizes that the distribution of butter side up and butter side down toast tosses indicates that Murphy's law is a quantifiable natural law.
Also, four of the six members of the research team slipped and fell down on their way out of the laborabory following the experiment.
2007-03-20 15:06:36 · 3 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
Peer review, anybody?
2007-03-20 15:08:29 · update #1
Unbuttered toast can be considered "fair" two-sided dice. But buttered toast are like "loaded" two-sided dice. The reason is that the butter puts a higher density and a lower air resistance on one side of the bread than the other side has, so a 50% expectation for butter-side-down is not in accordance with the physical parameters.
2007-03-21 00:31:36 · answer #1 · answered by blaringhorn 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Graduate students should not have parties in the lab.
2007-03-20 23:01:01 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Please give your source for the information.
2007-03-20 23:50:55 · answer #3 · answered by Boozer 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋