h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

...if you don't mind my asking?

in heavy wind the Washington Monument can sway 1/8th of an inch.

The statue of liberty sways even more in the wind.
The leaning tower of Pisa also sinks but unevenly

William the Conquerer's wife was only 4'2"?
42!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Is it true that a piece of buttered bread will always land butter side down? What if you strapped a piece of this bread to the back of a cat, would you in fact then create antigravity, since cats always land on their feet?

I have the perfect cat to use as a test bed, particularly if he won't stop chewing the corner of my computer desk.

SC

A school somewhere did a kiddie experiment to determine what the probability of the buttered bread thing was. This was in the newspaper- not because the outcome was spectacular and a scientific breakthrough, but because the Authorities thought it was silly. The outcome is unknown.
I wish I'd gone to that school.
-Mandragora (seeking tapes of the entire radio series)

The average tear is 5.90 sheets of Toilet Paper.
44% wipe from front to back from behind their backs.
60% look at the paper after they wipe.
42% fold, 33% crumple, 8% do both fold and crumple, 6% wrap it around their hands.
50% say that they have wiped with leaves.
8% have wiped with their hands.
2% have wiped with money

I have always wondered what would happen if you tied two cats together back to back and dropped them out a window.

Of course I will never try it because I don't wish to abuse cats but I have just always wondered what would happen.

I wonder if you could generate electricity that way

Also, I wonder if you would get the same results with two pieces of bread. Maybe I should try that

Strap two cats together back to back and the resulting Cat-Dynamo will spin so fast as to actually tear space. It's how black holes are formed don'tchaknow.

Though you get a better result with two bits of buttered toast strapped together. Less flailing of legs to increase wind resistance.

Nurse, the straps!

The reason that toast always falls buttered side down is less to do with the inherent butter-floor attraction, and more to do with the fact that it doesn't have time to do a complete revolution between the tabletop and the floor. In fact were you to knock the toast over from a buttered-side-down position, it would land face up. Alternatively, using higher tables might work...

You are right
I just tried it
I had to know if it worked

If you don't like toast landing butter side down then use a low fat spread instead or make toasted butter sandwiches.

I think the bread experiment would have the same results with margerine or any other type of spread
I don't see how different spreads would affect the bread differently when dropped

Where's your sense of warped logic gone, Phreako? Toast obviously can't land butter side down if it's covered with some synthetic goop instead.

It would still land on the side opposite of the one that was facing upwards. Goop side down
Or goop side up if you started with the goop side down

If you spread it really really thickly on one side, it might impart extra momentum to swing it through the face down position. I doubt it though

There is only one way to tell

the "Battle of Bunker Hill" at the beginning of the american revolution was actually fought on Breeds hill, which is just in front of Bunker...

Goop side down is not the same as butter side down therefore I've solved the problem . As well as employing my brilliant toasted butter sandwich solution, buttering and eating the toast of the floor would also work, and you could wear my patented toast-detecting butter-pumping helmet which would butter the toast inside your mouth.

Buttering and eating the toast of the floor?
What is that supposed to mean?
Is there a special type of toast that comes from the floor and is therefore the toast of the floor?
Or are you just toasting the floor, spreading butter on it, and then eating the floor leaving a big hole which people can fall through?