The Buttered Bread Experiment

Observations

Figure 3 - Beese performing first drop (bread has already landed, good job Jules, geez... :) )

Figure 4 - Julia performing second drop

Wait! Do I see the bread in the air?! Should we zoom in to see?

Figure 5 - "Zoomed" in on bread (We should compliment the photographer at this juncture)

Droppers - Julia and Beese 

Drop Up Down
1   *
2 *  
3   *
4   *
5 *  
6 *  
7 *  
8   *
9   *
10 *  
11 *  
12   *
13   *
14   *
15   *
16   *
17   *
18   *
19   *
20 0.5 0.5

(On the final drop, the bread was so torn that it landed half up and half down.)
Up - 6.5
Down - 13.5

Conclusion  Indeed, the old wives' tale is true - when dropped, the buttered side will land downwards with an accuracy of 67.5%. Ironically the up impacts were all by Julia, except for the final 0.5. I smell a conspiracy, but we were content with our results. How could we live out the rest of our lives knowing that an old wives' tale was false?! Now if we can just find a cat...

Figure 6 - The brave slice of bread is torn and peppered from the impacts to the ground and rooftop


Updated: 12-29-2000