TheBanyanTree: Ouch

[Stew Young]

Speaking of falling down...

Do you know why toast always lands butter side down? It's because if it
didn't, we'd all be brain damaged.

Apparently, we were designed to be of a certain height -- about 5'8 to 6'.
Because of this, kitchen counters are designed at a certain height. And at
this height, toast flips over a half turn to land butter side down.

If we were any taller, counters would be higher, allowing the toast to flip
over more than a half flip, and landing butter side up. However if we were
taller, when we fell over, we would do significantly more damage to our
skulls. As it is, our skulls can survive a fall from 5;8 to 6; pretty
nicely.

At least that's how Scientific American explained it years ago.

Food (toast) for thought.


On Dec 17, 2007 7:58 AM, Laura <wolfljsh at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 17 Dec 2007 NancyIee at aol.com wrote:
>
> > I learned how to correctly fall from a horse, tuck everything in and
> roll
> > with the momentum.  I try to use that same method when walking/falling
> > over  my own feet.  Trying to catch yourself with outstretched hands
> only
> > ends up  with broken wrists.
>
> I think that's why only one side of me is sore.  (and only sore - nothing
> broken, only a slight bruising of the skin on my foot and knee)  I also
> learned the truck and roll when riding, and it was very useful, and
> reinforced, when doing martial arts.  However, when your foot is stuck in
> the fence, tuck and roll just pulls the muscles in your leg, because you
> can't
> roll unless the fence (or your foot) breaks!
>
> With feet this big, I'm constantly falling up or down stairs, because my
> feet
> are three inches longer than the steps.  I trip over raised cracks in the
> sidewalk, rocks and tree roots on the ground, and furballs on the carpet.
>
> If I would wear shoes I could probably prevent many of these falls.  I'm
> sure
> if I'd had shoes on, I wouldn't have fallen Friday night.  I would have
> kicked
> the gate and gone right on over it.  Instead, I tangled up my toes.  But
> I'd
> rather fall than wear the stupid shoes.
>
> --
> Laura
> wolfljsh at gmail.com
> My Blog - http://wolfsinger.wordpress.com
>



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