I mowed grass. I mowed grass. I mowed grass. My back hurts. The End.
MjL 24 Apr 2016, 4:29 a.m.
After yesterday’s rousing answer to why the bill is always face down on the table —— we explore why toast usually lands jelly side down when dropped.
1) The toast slips off the side of the table and is given a slight rotation as it starts to fall. As most kitchen tables and work surfaces are about waist height, the toast only manages 1/2 a rotation before it hits the floor, jelly side down. So, if you want to have your toast landing jelly side up, you’d better build your work surfaces twice as high or make smaller slices so that they have time to complete the rotation.
2) Several scientific studies have found that when toast is dropped from a table (as opposed to being thrown in the air), it does fall jelly-side down at least 62% of the time. One such study won the Ig Nobel Prize in 1996.
When toast falls out of one’s hand, it does so at an angle (simply by nature of it having slipped from its previous position of level to the ground). The toast then rotates. Given that tables are usually between 2 and 6 feet (0.7 to 2 meters), there is enough time for the toast to rotate about 1/2 of a turn, and thus lands upside down relative to its original position. Since the original position is usually jelly side up, the toast lands jelly side down.
However, if the table is over 10 feet (3 meters) tall, the toast will rotate a full 360 degrees, and thus land jelly-side up. Also, if the toast travels horizontally at over 3.6 miles per hour (1.6 m/s), the toast will not rotate enough to land jelly-side down. In fact, the phenomenon is caused by fundamental physical constants.
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