The “buttered toast problem”
You’ve probably heard this one – I had. Why does toast always land butter side down? Physicist Robert Matthews analyzed this in the Nineties and it was published in the European Journal of Physics in 1995.
Toast sits on your plate butter up
When it falls, the table edge acts as a pivot, flipping it
It rotates as it falls (thanks gravity!)
From the height of the typical table, it has enough room to do a 180
There. Butter side down.
If the table were taller, it would have time to spin all the way around and it’s anyone’s guess which side would be up. Also, if the toast is tiny (like canapés) the math doesn’t work.
And yes, Matthews also formulated the question, “But what if the buttered toast was strapped to the back of a cat?” And yes, he also won the Ig Nobel Prize for it.
Posted: March 11th, 2026 under personal.
Comments: 14
Comments
Comment from dissent555
Time: March 11, 2026, 6:19 pm
Yes, but what happens when the tumbling toast is influenced by the airspeed velocity of a unladen swallow?
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: March 11, 2026, 6:30 pm
I have no idea why that went into spam, but it did.
I’m being *hammered* with actual spam lately.
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: March 11, 2026, 6:51 pm
Good lord – MY comment went into spam!
Comment from Uncle AL
Time: March 11, 2026, 8:01 pm
(Gotta do it)
An African or a European swallow?
Comment from Veeshir
Time: March 11, 2026, 10:09 pm
I’ve always assumed it was because the perversity of the universe tends toward the maximum.
You know, Murphy’s Law.
Added,
The comment section looks different. I can see the whole box as I’m typing and I no longer get the warning that the connection is not secure.
Comment from QuasiModo
Time: March 11, 2026, 10:22 pm
SWeasel.com, where we ask the important questions 🙂
Comment from Durnedyankee
Time: March 11, 2026, 10:53 pm
If he gripped it by the crust….
Comment from durnedyankee
Time: March 11, 2026, 10:53 pm
And then slapped some spam on it, which is where my comment actually went…..
Comment from Pupster
Time: March 12, 2026, 1:11 am
If it lands butter side up you put butter on the wrong side.
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: March 12, 2026, 7:33 am
Everything is going into the approval queue now – even my commments! Apologies.
Comment from Deborah HH
Time: March 12, 2026, 11:19 am
Not to mention the horror of dropping a piece of Cinnamon Toast in the floor up-side-down. Butter, cinnamon AND sugar to clean up.
Comment from Uncle AL
Time: March 12, 2026, 11:21 am
I wondr if Akismt somhow took it in mind to rjct any commnt that contains 1 particular lttr?
Comment from ExpressoBold Pureblood
Time: March 12, 2026, 1:19 pm
The letter “e”… brought to you by Elmo!
Comment from sock
Time: March 12, 2026, 3:28 pm
I always figured that it was because there was more weight on the buttered side, causing a tendency to fall with the butter-side leading (given sufficient length of fall for that force to operate).
Silly me!
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Beware: more than one link in a comment is apt to earn you a trip to the spam filter, where you will remain -- cold, frightened and alone -- until I remember to clean the trap. But, hey, without Akismet, we'd be up to our asses in...well, ass porn, mostly.<< carry me back to ol' virginny