TheBanyanTree: Ouch

[Theta Brentnall]

I should have known that our Australian science guy would have the 
definitive answer to this conundrum.

Theta

Peter Macinnis wrote:
> Reminded me of something. 
> http://members.ozemail.com.au/~macinnis/butrdcat.htm
>
> peter
>
> Stew Young wrote:
>> It's the definition of a perpetual motion anti-gravity machine.
>>
>>
>> On Dec 17, 2007 10:18 AM, Theta Brentnall <tybrent at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Which brings to mind that age-old dilemma - what happens if you strap a
>>> piece of toast, butter side up, on the back of a cat and then drop the
>>> cat?  Besides pissing off the cat, that is.
>>>
>>> Theta
>>>
>>> Stew Young wrote:
>>>> 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.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>