buttered toast phenomenon

Written accounts can be traced to the mid-19th century. The phenomenon is often attributed to a parodic poem of James Payn from 1884:{{cite book|last1=Apperson|first1=George Latimer|title=Dictionary of Proverbs|date=2005|publisher=Wordsworth Editions Ltd.|location=Ware|isbn=978-1840223118|pages=69–70|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7PMZJqSR4sAC&q=buttered|accessdate=2015-04-13}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fgaUQc8NbTYC&dq=%C2%A0James+Payn+from+1884+butter+side+down&pg=PA32|title=The Facts on File Dictionary of Proverbs|last=Manser|first=Martin H.|date=2007|publisher=Infobase Publishing|isbn=9780816066735|language=en}}

{{Quotation

|

I never had a slice of bread,

Particularly large and wide,

That did not fall upon the floor,

And always on the buttered side!

}}

In the past, this has often been considered just a pessimistic belief. A 1991 study by the BBC's television series Q.E.D. found that when toast is tossed into the air, it lands butter-side down just one-half of the time (as would be predicted by chance). However, several scientific studies have found that when toast is dropped from a table (as opposed to being thrown in the air), it more often falls butter-side down.{{cite news |title=Breakfast at Murphy's (or why the toast lands butter-side down) |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1331810/Breakfast-at-Murphys-or-why-the-toast-lands-butter-side-down.html |accessdate=19 December 2012 |newspaper=The Telegraph |date=27 May 2001 |first=Robert |last=Matthews |author-link=Robert Matthews (scientist)}}{{Cite journal|last=Matthews|first=R. A. J.|date=1995|title=Tumbling toast, Murphy's Law and the fundamental constants|journal=European Journal of Physics|language=en|volume=16|issue=4|pages=172–176|doi=10.1088/0143-0807/16/4/005|issn=0143-0807|bibcode=1995EJPh...16..172M|s2cid=120029095}}{{cite journal |title=A closer look at tumbling toast |url=https://space.umd.edu/dch/p405s04/AJP00038.pdf |accessdate=21 November 2017 |journal=American Journal of Physics |volume=69 |pages=38–43 |date=2001 |last=Bacon |issue=1 |doi=10.1119/1.1289213 |bibcode=2001AmJPh..69...38B |archive-date=8 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170808060421/https://space.umd.edu/dch/p405s04/AJP00038.pdf |url-status=dead}} A study on this subject by Robert Matthews won the Ig Nobel Prize for physics in 1996.{{cite web |title=An Experiment That Solves The World's Most Important Question: How to Keep Toast from Landing Buttered-Side Down |url=http://io9.com/5867322/an-experiment-that-solves-the-worlds-most-important-question-how-to-keep-toast-from-landing-buttered+side-down |publisher=io9 |first=Esther |last=Inglis-Arkell |date=13 December 2011 |accessdate=19 December 2012 |archive-date=24 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140224022319/http://io9.com/5867322/an-experiment-that-solves-the-worlds-most-important-question-how-to-keep-toast-from-landing-buttered+side-down |url-status=dead }}

File:Falling buttered toast.svg' equation for the angular momentum of toast falling from a table:
{{math|1=ω² = {{sfrac|6g (a+δ) sin θ|a (1 + 3 (a+δ)²)}}|big=1}}
Knowing the angular momentum, the height of the table H and acceleration from gravity g can be used to determine which side will hit the floor.]]

The problem has been studied modelling the toast being pushed from the edge of a table. When toast starts to fall, it does so at an angle, causing the toast to rotate. Given that tables are usually between two and six feet (0.7 to 1.83 meters), there is enough time for the toast to rotate about one-half of a turn, and thus land upside down relative to its original position. Since the original position is usually butter-side up, the toast lands butter-side down.{{cite web |title=Buttered Toast and Other Patterns |url=https://www.maa.org/external_archive/devlin/devlin_july_98.html |date=July 1998 |website=Mathematical Association of America |first=Keith |last=Devlin |accessdate=19 December 2012 |archive-date=2 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702212025/https://www.maa.org/external_archive/devlin/devlin_july_98.html |url-status=dead }} However, if the table is over {{convert|10|ft|m|abbr=off|sp=us}} tall, the toast will rotate a full 360 degrees, and land butter-side up.{{cite episode|title=Butter Side Down |url=http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/content/kitchenscience/exp/butter-side-down/ |series=The Naked Scientists |network=BBC |date=16 December 2007 |first1=Ben |last1=Valsler |accessdate=21 December 2012}} If the toast is pushed from the table at a high enough speed (1.6 m/s), it will not rotate enough to land butter-side down.{{cite web |title=The Anthropomurphic Principle |url=http://www.whydomath.org/Reading_Room_Material/ian_stewart/anthro/anthro.html |website=Why Do Math? |publisher=Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics |first=Ian |last=Stewart |date=1995 |accessdate=21 December 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702212023/http://www.whydomath.org/Reading_Room_Material/ian_stewart/anthro/anthro.html|archive-date=2023-07-02}}

Professor Robert Matthews argued that the phenomenon is ultimately based in fundamental physical constants, reasoning that the height of a table from which toast might fall is directly related to the height of humans, and human height itself derives from chemical bond principles (if a person's skull is higher than three meters from the ground, then a fall will lead the fracture of its chemical bonds).{{cite journal |last=Matthews |first=R A J |author-link=Robert Matthews (scientist) |title=Tumbling toast, Murphy's Law and the fundamental constants|journal=European Journal of Physics |date=18 July 1995 |volume=16 |issue=4 |pages=172–176 |doi=10.1088/0143-0807/16/4/005 |bibcode = 1995EJPh...16..172M |s2cid=120029095}} For this work, Matthews earned the 1996 Ig Nobel Prize for physics.{{cite news |title=Ig Nobel Falls for "Tumbling Toast" |url=https://www.deseret.com/1996/10/5/19269746/ig-nobel-falls-for-tumbling-toast/ |access-date=28 June 2025 |work=Deseret News |date=5 October 1996 |language=en}}

Although some may expect the weight of the butter on one side to affect the falling process,{{cite web |title=Why does a falling piece of toast always seem to land on the buttered side? |url=http://www.how-come.net/2009/08/17/why-does-a-falling-piece-of-toast-always-seem-to-land-on-the-buttered-side/ |publisher=How Come? |date=2009-08-17 |first=Kathy |last=Wollard |accessdate=21 December 2012 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090830231610/http://www.how-come.net/2009/08/17/why-does-a-falling-piece-of-toast-always-seem-to-land-on-the-buttered-side/ |archive-date=2009-08-30}} mathematician Ian Stewart describes its effect on the dynamics and aerodynamics as "negligible", as it is mostly absorbed into the centre of the slice of toast.

The buttered cat paradox is a question that asks if toast always lands butter side down and cats always land on their feet, what would happen if a slice of toast were attached butter-side-up to the back of a dropped cat?{{cite magazine |last=Morris |first=Scot |date=July 1993 |title=I Have a Theory... |magazine=Omni |url=http://www.housevampyr.com/training/library/books/omni/OMNI_1993_07.pdf#page=66&zoom=530,-19,175 |page=96 |volume=15 |issue=9 |access-date=2024-07-08 |archive-date=2021-02-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225122804/http://www.housevampyr.com/training/library/books/omni/OMNI_1993_07.pdf#page=66&zoom=530,-19,175 |url-status=dead }}

A Wise Man of Chelm joke recounts a housewife being amazed at a slice of bread falling buttered side up one morning, contrary to the idiom. After consulting the elders at the synagogue at some length, they conclude: "Madam, the problem is that you have buttered the wrong side of the bread."Ruth von Bernuth, How the Wise Men Got to Chelm: The Life and Times of a Yiddish Folk Tradition

• Five second rule
• Murphy's law
• Sod's law
• The Butter Battle Book
• {{section link|Finagle's law|Variants}}
• {{section link|Resistentialism|Similar concepts}}

{{Reflist}}

{{portal bar|Food}}

{{Butter}}

Category:Physical phenomena

Category:Butter

Category:Bread in culture