| Автор | R A J Matthews |
| Дата выпуска | 1995-07-18 |
| dc.description | We investigate the dynamics of toast tumbling from a table to the floor. Popular opinion is that the final state is usually butter-side down, and constitutes prima facie evidence of Murphy's Law ('If it can go wrong, it will'). The orthodox view, in contrast, is that the phenomenon is essentially random, with a 50/50 split of possible outcomes. We show that toast does indeed have an inherent tendency to land butter-side down for a wide range of conditions. Furthermore, we show that this outcome is ultimately ascribable to the values of the fundamental constants. As such, this manifestation of Murphy's Law appears to be an ineluctable feature of our universe. |
| Формат | application.pdf |
| Издатель | Institute of Physics Publishing |
| Название | Tumbling toast, Murphy's Law and the fundamental constants |
| Тип | paper |
| DOI | 10.1088/0143-0807/16/4/005 |
| Electronic ISSN | 1361-6404 |
| Print ISSN | 0143-0807 |
| Журнал | European Journal of Physics |
| Том | 16 |
| Первая страница | 172 |
| Последняя страница | 176 |
| Аффилиация | R A J Matthews; Dept. of Appl. Math. & Comput. Sci., Aston Univ., Birmingham, UK |
| Выпуск | 4 |
