Comments on: Episode 28: Is Yawning Contagious?

By: Vocabulary: Resistentialism — Teaching College English

Vocabulary: Resistentialism — Teaching College English — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 03:08:54 +0000

[...] to repeat this scientific experiment, MythBusters did not find that toast landed butter side down. Toast is more likely to land buttered side-down [...]

By: timmy

timmy — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 22:22:12 +0000

and I don’t like to do hypothesises and we have a cranky teacher Mr.Guymer

By: timmy

timmy — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 21:56:23 +0000

I have to do a hypothesis on that theory

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 14:29:10 +0000

Matt you have it precisely right.

If you place the toast on the table butter side down and push it off what do you think will happen?

The reason it spins is because one side of it will give way to gravity and turn, flipping the slice! I guess its chaotic how many more spins it will do with a given height, probably got something to do with the initial resultant force which causes the spin. i.e. if you forcably pushed down on the side slid out from under the table.

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 04:33:05 +0000

Butter toast IS more likely to land butter side down. This is because when butter toast is knocked off a table it has to complete almost a complete 360 spin to be butter side up when it lands, while it only needs to spin at least 90 degrees to be butter side down on landing.

Since the average table/counter/etc is half the height of an adult, there is not much distance to allow a full 360 spin during fall unless the toast is knocked off at a weird angle or fumbled.

I suppose that doesn’t mean however that is ALWAYS lands butter side down. Just more often then not.

By: sarah to the michelle

sarah to the michelle — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 02:00:09 +0000

hmm.. it seems to me that after reading this i yawned about 10 times!! Oops 11! =)

By: KS

KS — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 12:20:18 +0000

So if toast with a heap load of butter will be more likely to fall buttered side down I cant help but wonder that if a cat is supposed to always lands on it’s feet, what if you slid a cat off the edge of a building with a slice of toast strapped to it’s back buttered side up ????

By: Natas M.

Natas M. — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 07:04:27 +0000

i think yawning is contagious, i yawn and then maybe look across the room and someone else has already been yawning and i didnt know about it.

By: mojoe44

mojoe44 — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 22:23:06 +0000

I suspect you might be wrong on
Why Toast Falls Butter Side Down.

Please Read…

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN
Table of Contents: December 1995 Volume 273 Number 6

Mathematical Recreations
Murphy’s Law demystified: why toast falls butter-side down.

By: jaryd

jaryd — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 05:30:59 +0000

i yawned just reading that.