It's well known that
A. Buttered toast always falls buttered side down.
B. Cats always land on their feet.
An old joke asks what would happen if we strapped a slice of buttered toast on a cat's back, buttered side up, and dropped the pair. Would toast and cat spin frantically round their common axis as they descended?
This is farcical of course, but reminds me of a though-experiment by Galileo. In Galileo's time many believed that heavy objects fell faster than light ones. Very well, asked Galileo, what would happen if we connected a heavy objects and a light one with a piece of cord, and let them fall?
The Tao of Toast
Another old joke concerns a monk who dropped his buttered toast and it landed buttered side UP!!!
In a state of great perturbation he scurried off to see the Abbott.
"Father", he said, "I am an old man and have eaten much buttered toast in my time. My toast often falls from my weak old fingers and heretofore it has always landed with the buttered side down. Today it was buttered side up. Father, does this prodigy foretell the end of ages, the second coming, and the day of judgement?"
The Abbot answered, "My Son be calm and do not disturb yourself. The explanation is simple. You buttered the toast on the wrong side."
Comments
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Cut the slices in half, then butter them, then drop them. Sorted.
(If that doesn't work, I refer you to Murphy's Second Law.)
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Hmm. Is this a toasted sandwich?
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Funnily enough, there's a suggestion in the Viz Top Tips in the current issue, which I received just yesterday.
Basically it says if this problem bothers you, drop the toast before you butter it then pick it up and butter the side that was facing up.
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Cats can lick their backs. So I reckon the cat would lick the butter off.
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The cat could, but it would be spinning in mid-air just above the ground until it had done so.
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If it were Schrodinger's toast, wouldn't the cat's position remain indeterminate until the butter had been licked?