Laws of Physics

A minute ago I accidentally dropped three odd-shaped objects on the floor. If they had bounced in any of three directions, they would have encountered a hard flat surface and stopped conveniently near my feet. If they bounced in the fourth direction, they would be seeking shelter in a hard-to-get area and I would need a large pole, a search and rescue dog, and the Cirque de Soleil to get to them.

All three odd-shaped objects ran for cover in the hard-to-get spot. I am considering leaving them there forever.

This accidental experiment demonstrates one of the laws of physics you rarely hear about: Dropped objects seek the point of least accessibility. You can try it yourself by dropping an orange on the ground anywhere near a parked automobile. The orange will take off toward that parked car like a rabbit in a slingshot, even if the parked car is at the top of a steep hill. The law of gravity does not apply in these situations.

Another rarely discussed aspect of physics is the law of misplaced keys. When you can’t readily find your keys in the house, you will not later discover them on top of some obvious surface such as a countertop or a dresser. Nor will they be in the pocket of whatever clothing you recently wore. Keys scamper to their hiding places whenever their owner becomes preoccupied doing something else, such as chasing an orange that is heading toward a parked car. In that moment of inattentiveness, the keys make a beeline for the least likely location that anyone would ever look. For example, you might find them months later in a jar of mayonnaise in your cupboard, or taped to the back of an old-fashioned toilet in an Italian restaurant down the street.

Do you have any other laws of physics to share?

Comments

[Liz]

If you like a show it will be canceled. If you don't, it will run for a decade or three.

[Sapna]

Shopping for a dress when you are feeling rich at the moment.The odds against finding something of interest diminish rapidly, the more determined you are to buy on that particular day. And a day dedicated to window shopping would leave you wishing it was on of your richer days...

I now try and fool myself into thinking I don't need to buy anything but keep an eye out,just in case...

[Sapna]

Shopping for a dress when you are feeling rich at the moment.The odds against finding something of interest diminish rapidly, the more determined you are to buy on that particular day. And a day dedicated to window shopping would leave you wishing it was on of your richer days...

I now try and fool myself into thinking I don't need to buy anything but keep an eye out,just in case...

[Sapna]

Shopping for a dress when you are feeling rich at the moment.The odds against finding something of interest diminish rapidly, the more determined you are to buy on that particular day. And a day dedicated to window shopping would leave you wishing it was on of your richer days...

I now try and fool myself into thinking I don't need to buy anything but keep an eye out,just in case...

[law of attraction book]

I’m so glad that I have found your post. I have been unsure of this topic for some time and you have enabled me to understand it a whole lot better. I really appreciate it. I was reading a post a while ago that helped me in the same way that yours has.

[trond]

Hi Scott. I wonder what's your take on Eternal Return theory. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_return
I thought you might find that interesting.

[David Hardingham]

Leak proof seals will...

Self Starters won't...

[Nin]

Whenever you have real serious work, and you are late for office,
The human being superior in position to you, will always be present on time, and look at you.

[Joe]

BML: Biological Magnetic Line

No matter where you are sitting, some biological organism (child, adult, cat, dog, etc) will wander in (or hop on the coffee table) and place itself in the precise spot to block your view of the TV.

[alexei]

this is something that musicians will notice more than most people. if a completely disentangled cable is plugged in at both ends it will still have a knot in the middle by the end of the gig, not a complex messy thats the result of a gig chaos, but the basic one loop knot that REQUIRES at least one end to be free

[jayne]

i was young, i was going for a dance class, i was getting into my dad's car, i was in my flip flops, i was getting into my dad's car, i was closing the door.

i was in my dad's car, i was getting near to my dance school, i was all excited, i was almost all excited, i had changed into my dance shoes and off i go for my dance class!

but..

i had forgot one of my flip flops when i was getting into my dad's car. i had conveniently left it at the car park when i was getting into the car.
-sheepish-

the single flip flop was still at the carpark waiting faithfully for its owner's retrieval.

[Nona]

Did someone mention not seeing the one episode of a show you really want to see, despite seeing all the reruns? For years I wanted to see the Monty Python Cheese Shop Sketch, and as Monty Python is on almost every night on UK Gold, I thought I had pretty good chance. Nope. Everytime I sat down to watch Month Python, no cheese shop sketch. Then one day, I flicked over to UK Gold expecting something else - and there it was, The Cheese Show Sketch just starting.

Other rules - no matter where you put your glasses down, they will inevitiably find their way to the next place you sit down. Glasses are suicidal.

The most interesting guy in the room is always gay. Or married to a complete bimbo. Or both.

If you have 30 seconds before you really REALLY have to leave for work, your computer will suddenly decide it needs to perform several complicated functions before it shuts down.

The day you have bad hair, a spot the size of Vesuvius on the end of your nose, are bloated to twice the size of New Zealand and are scowling fiercly as you realise you hate the entire world is the day you bump into the guy you erally fancy. The day you look gorgeous, a goddess brought down to Earth, is the day you see absolutely nobody you know.

Just as you sit down, nicely settled, heater/fan finally angled the right way and at the right temperature, fully laden tray of food on your lap, favourite TV programme about to start, glasses within reach is the exact same moment as you realise you really have to go to the toilet right now!

[rabow]

I can't take credit for this, but the real reason you lose socks is because of the existence of anti-socks.

The reason why you always lose socks when doing your laundry has long been an enigma to scientists. The widely accepted explanation requires the existence of anti-socks that lurk in washing machines. When a regular sock comes into contact with said anti-sock, the two eliminate each other, releasing a large amount of energy. Sometimes, the energy released creates another sock/anti-sock pair. The advantage to this theory is that it predicts the existence of the random socks you always find in your laundry that are never yours.

[ex CC boss]

Dave's law of missing items: Blame it on my poltergeist.
I have one named Clyde, and he always hides things I have immediate need of. I usually ignore him, but if I really need to find something, like say I am on the bus downtown and am getting off at the next stop and I can't find where I put my glasses, I just say out loud "Clyde, put those glasses back!" People look at me like I'm crazy, but I find my glasses right away.

[Paul Steinway]

Any electrical appliance placed on a horizontal surface for use or servicing will ultimately come to rest on its own power cord.

[anuja]

It rains over weekends while weekdays bask in sunshine. I'd always known that - and now National Geographic agrees. Saw on Wild Weather last week that human weekly work cycles have had their impact on rain patterns.

[MikeBert in Phoenix]

Yes, I have one.

Procrastination produces...aw, the hell with it. I need a nap.

[pemma]

While playing golf, your ball lands a few yards away from a tree. When taking the next shot, only way to avoid hitting the tree is to aim at the tree.

[Davey Gravy]

You rarely see pedestrians in a modern neighborhood. If there is one he will always cross your driveway just when you want to turn into it.

If you pull into a driveway that has a hose stretched across it your tires will always stop on the hose.

[Madmarleyboro]

Odd Laws of Physics:

No corollaries, postulates, theories, or Second Laws of Etc.

The truth in movement of any object is random. We come up with ways of explaining, only what we "see" or observe. If it happens enough times, we think it's "law". Then one day, for reasons unknown, it just decides to either sit put, or as you mentioned, go off in a direction totally skewed.

Free will of non-thinking objects are just as true as free will of thinking objects. And I doubt it's even will....it's more like "whim".

Flip a coin 100 times. Does it wander to that 50/50 law....or does it, for reasons unknown either land perfectly on it's rim...or just fall into a storm gutter.

A better law concerning chance, is to just not risk that penny at all, and keep it in your pocket. Letting money decide on it's own where it chooses to fall, can't be smart.

[Cisco]

When you turn on one of those taps that control both temperature and water volume with a single tap depending on how far you crank it (mainly modernish shower taps), and move it halfway, it will always be a different temperature depending on whether or not you turned it from the 'hot side' or the 'cold side'.

[elmindreda]

This is why I've chained my keys to my backpack.

[Bill]

I was walking home from work last week, and I found a targa computer bag lying on the ground, underneath the rapid transit system (ie train). I thought neat! There was no computer in it though. So I dropped it, and went on my my merry way. The next day, while attaching my overly large backup to my back, I thought, hey, I could use a smaller bag! Maybe that Targa bag is there! So I rushed to the bum camp near my, work, where I'd seen it, but alas, it was gone.
The next day, on the way to work, I came across a ticketmaster ticket stuck to the ground. It was wet, and damp, and as much as I tried, I couldn't detach it from the cement. At first I thought it was a prank, but, no one was looking. And on second glance I saw it was a ticket for Meatloaf... for two days earlier.

And the point of this? Things will always work against you. Life isn't like a box of chocolates. Unless that box of chocolates contains a whole bunch of orange flavoured or cherry flavoured chocolates, and only a few toffee and fudge ones.

[Tony W]

All cables, wires, hoses, etc that CAN tangle WILL tangle.
Corollary: All wires, cables, hoses, etc that CANNOT POSSIBLY tangle - will anyway.

[Abiebaby]

The Law of Toddler Shoe Magnetism

On a bus or train, toddler shoes will be attracted to nearby commuters. The toddler will rotate himself to accommodate the law.

[-B-]

I’ve understood this term quite late … all the while I was thinking acoustics is a design to enable clear transmission of sound … now that could be a problem

In the new office that we have moved, acoustics has done the damage … I mean the architect has been excellent … to a level more than required for such a building. The kind of acoustics that this building is equipped with is designed for Space shuttles, Echo chambers etc.

Recently I’ve had a meeting in one corner of the office …. The acoustics are so excellent that everyone on the floor has heard all what was discussed. In-fact if you would want to call the whole floor for a meeting… its easier to go to the conference room and call aloud … mails n phones are things from the past.

Forecasting this … I suggest that the management provides all the associates with Ear plugs and makes in compulsory for everyone to wear it all day at work so that you don’t listed to something that you are not supposed to hear. Only when you are authorised by the management can one remove the earplugs and listen what happening.

I’ve personally decided to be dumb .. anyway it helps me conserve energy further !!

[-B-]

Plenty of instances! Like marbles in my pocket, whenever I want anything the one of least importance pops up!! so in that order as under …
Search for Keys, donno if this has something to do with 'Men are from Mars' thingy ... i'll never find them when i am in a hurry. i'll find every other key i've ever lost.. ever
I've moved into my new apartment, and we were trying to put a chandelier every time the screw feel.. it gracefully reached its destiny = Corner under the sofa, one of the most difficult places to reach humanly. I had to get down the ladder, crawl, pick-up and then try refixing … again its slips my hands and reaches.. its destiny…. Frustrated I forgot to put one of the screws and broke my chandelier
We end up spending the most amount of time on issues which were not in the original agenda.

[DarkBob]

Sorry, couldn't hold it in any longer...
(Please feel free to shout "Pedant!")

The "It's always in the last place you look" is really implying "it's always in the last place you'd THINK to look". Hence if before you started looking you thought of all the places to look, it's probably going to be in the last place you would THINK of.

Ah!, I've been holding that in for days. It sure feels good to let it out...

(I've managed to stop trying to explain the logic of all these statements - I'm thinking of it in terms of watching "good" bad sci-fi. i.e. turn off brain.

Apologies,
-DarkBob

[Another Alan]

The more obvious the response to a Dilbert blog post, the less likely it is that the responder will look at earlier responses.

[Max Vlasenko, Russian Federation]

Another law of secret physics related to keys is that whenever you carry a key in a pocket of your clothes, and no matter how many pockets you have on you in total, the key is going to be in the last pocket you get into with your only vacant hand, and it's going to be the pocket located least conveniently, e.g. accross your currently vacant hand. Knowing this never helps, though, and you always start searching from the wrong pocket.

[James O'Brien]

You can't save time and you can't save money. Any attempt to save one will cost the other.

[peter]

I think that your intial two laws regarding dropped objects and keys, both fall under Sod's Law.

[Wayne]

If the probability of something bad happening to you is 50:50, the likelihood of it happening is 10 to 1.

And I can't even imaging strapping a piece of buttered toast to a cat's back. I once tried to put a flea collar on my cat, and I still have the scars to prove it.

[Lise]

Buttered bread dropped from a height always lands butter-side down and cats dropped from a height always land on their feet, but if you fasten a piece of butter-side-up bread to a cat and drop the whole thing from a height, it will defy gravity to land on your chest and claw out your lungs. And rightfully so.

[2E]

Closely related is the common rule that women should not be in control of the tv remote. They like to complain about the fact that you don't let them wield the power of the remote but anytime they use it gets lost. This doesn't matter if you leave for 10 minutes or if they are using it while you are not home. When you return you have to search the house to find it. Sometimes it is gone for days only to be found somewhere completely random such as the top shelf in THEIR closet or behind the cerial in the pantry. One time I even found the tv remote in the trunk of the car. The frosting on the cake is that it still ends up being the man's fault.

[2E]

Closely related is the common rule that women can never leave the remote where it can be easily found. They like to complain about the fact that you don't let them wield the power of the tv remote but anytime they use it gets lost. This doesn't matter if you leave for 10 minutes or if they are using it while you are not home. When you return you have to search the house to find it. Sometimes it is gone for days only to be found somewhere completely random such as the top shelf in THEIR closet or behind the cerial in the pantry. One time I even found the tv remote in the trunk of the car. The frosting on the cake is that somehow it always ends up being te mans fault.

[Ding]

Stocks that you buy will go down; Stocks that you sell will go up

[arshat chaudhary]

Law of Foology:-Foolproof schemes cant be put into circulation,coz the fools are so smart that they always find ways to act foolish..

[Workerant]

The usual one - the queue I'm in at the supermarket/shop/post office always goes the slowest unless I change to another. The lost sock in the washing machine is explained by the fact that it is sacrificed to the god of the machine and recycled as belly-button fluff.

[monkeypuncher]

The probability of an event/unveiling/demonstration/test/pronouncement going as planned is inversely proportional the the square of the number of people watching. If no-one is watching; your genius invention will work first try, if the whole family is watching; it will burst into flames. The scale of the fallout is directly proportional...just ask Janet Jackson.

[Wendell]

If you guess what the law says, and the guess is in your favor, you are wrong. -Wendell's Rule of Law

[Cameron at Laugh It Off]

My brother and I coined the phrase "rower's irony".

In a rowing boat you appear to be traveling faster when you are heading into the current. You're speed through the water is faster (because the water is moving) but your groundspeed is slower. Hence, rower's irony.

[TrevOverT]

I made a long stick with a strong magnet epoxy'd to the end to defeat my long time "a dropped screw from the workbench always flees under the bench to the back wall" law, so naturally the first thing that dropped off the bench was a BRASS BLUDDY SCREW!

[Dave Lapierre]

I do not have any laws of physics to share but I would like to understand the principle behind the need for people who fill napkin and towell dispensers to fill them so tightly that all you get when you pull on a towel or napkin is a piece the size of your thumbnail.

[Bloefeld]

The mass of the item under which the object will seek to hide is proportonate to the rarety and expense of the part.

Thus if you drop a one of a kind ruby encrusted 41.8752 mm Socket it will always hide under the 75 tonne hydraulic all pointy things Swiss Army Knife in the center of your tool room.

This will require you to build a high-function robot that cannot be completed without the use of a 41.8752mm ruby encrusted Socket. Which is that last size of bolt you need to tighten to build the robot.

You of course left the last design element of the robot to the guy you hired out of pitty because you got the job you have because you screwed him in study group about robotics.

[Bloefeld]

Bloefeld´s First Law of Inverse Assholology is similar.

It states that if you are in a lineup at a restaurant or coffee place there will be a table of exactly the size you require sitting there lounging and enjoying the end of their meal. This will take a long time to complete.

At some point in time, each group will have the same thought inverted:

If at the table you will think; look at those assholes lining up for a table; if

you are in the line-up you will think; look at those assholes at the table, why on earth don´t they finish and let me have the table.

The Law is True and always works regardless of where you are in the line-up or table and is True anwhere in the universe.

Cheers,

Bloefeld

[Minister of Silly People in Green]

My roommate in college proved cats don't always land on their feet. Cruel, but extremely funny...

[M Hagen]

I started reading the comments to make sure I wasn't duplicating but was unable to spend the entire day reading one post's comments:

The law of Mexican/Italian food: The amount of salsa/red sauce you end up wearing is proportional to the whiteness of your clothing. (Err, I think that's right. You know what I mean anyway!)

[Paul]

well, this might have been said before, but as soon as you decide that you have lost something and you purchase a replacement, the original will appear in plain sight right after you open the box of the replacement.

[aca]

Tumbling toast, Murphy's Law and the fundamental constants

R A J Matthews 1995 Eur. J. Phys. 16 172-176 doi:10.1088/0143-0807/16/4/005

http://www.iop.org/EJ/abstract/0143-0807/16/4/005

R A J Matthews
Dept. of Appl. Math. & Comput. Sci., Aston Univ., Birmingham, UK

Abstract. We investigate the dynamics of toast tumbling from a table to the floor. Popular opinion is that the final state is usually butter-side down, and constitutes prima facie evidence of Murphy's Law ('If it can go wrong, it will'). The orthodox view, in contrast, is that the phenomenon is essentially random, with a 50/50 split of possible outcomes. We show that toast does indeed have an inherent tendency to land butter-side down for a wide range of conditions. Furthermore, we show that this outcome is ultimately ascribable to the values of the fundamental constants. As such, this manifestation of Murphy's Law appears to be an ineluctable feature of our universe.

Print publication: Issue 4 (July 1995)

[Sondra]

Just in case anyone cares...

The average dining/kitchen table is 33" tall. Buttered toast, dropped from a height of 33" turns 2 and a half times, to land butter side down. Either butter your toast in your lap or hold it at eye level.

[Dave]

If you are carrying a heavy load of all sorts of different shaped stuff, when you get to your destination, one item will be held on to barely by one pinky.

[Matthew Kovich]

Hey Scott:

Are you familiar with the British author and satirist Terry Pratchett? You and he are my favorite living writers to read.

He has a series of fantasy satire novels called the "Discworld" series. It is essentially a satire of the entire fantasy genre, and specific novels are occasionally specific satires of various genres/topics.

The Discworld is a very high-magic world, in which the laws of physics are slightly different. Mostly (humorously) based in the statistical improbabilities of fantasy novels.

For instance - a one-in-a-million chance crops up nine times out of ten.

Great stuff.

-Matt

[Lots42]

More rules:

1) Blinds. When you need to pull the cord one way to open, you will inevitably pull it the 'closing' way. If you need to close it, you will pull it the 'opening' way. If we somehow develop a one tug cord, one for open, one more for close, the entire universe will self destruct as there is no way to be wrong.

That, or the cord will fall off.

2) The amount of chairs unsuitable for sitting on (some public chair spaceage are smaller then my hip bones) is directly porportional to the amount of people in the room watching me stand around like an idiot.

3) The one word that can change the entire meaning of your sentence is the one you make the meaning-reversal typo on.

Corrolary: You notice this one millisecond -after- pressing the Post button.

4) The need to accomplish Task A will be inversly porportional to the amount of tasks you need to do before accomplishing it. For example, if you need to move the green box from the house to the car, the surrounding boxes will be wet (from the cat, or fate) and you will have to dry them so as not to stain the green box. Only, all the towels will be dirty (you can't use -those- towels to dry! Female Edict) and the spare detergent is in the basement. You pull the cord for the light over the basement stairs and the bulb burns out. You go to the linen closet for the bulb and the cat has knocked everything onto the floor behind the vacuum cleaner. You pull the cleaner out and the access panel falls open, spilling dirt and shmutz all over the clean linens and the clean carpet.

5) The more I need to open the soda to take my medicine, the less accepting the employees will be of this.

6) Anectode time. After reading some of this page this morning, I dropped my mouse pad cloth. (Don't ask). It always falls in the same spot so I foolishly looked for it there. It wasn't there. I became very frustrated and looked on the other side of my chair. I saw it peeking out, under my foot, which was at least a (pun intended) foot away from where the cloth usually drops.

7) Retail Law: The object the person asks for will always be found -after- they have left the store and drove away.

Corrolary: If it is found right away, they do not want it. (Apparently Inventory Police exist)

[WiHomer66]

#1 - No matter where I sit at a campfire, the smoke always blows my.

#2 - I can drive by a fast food resturant and the drive thru is empty. By the time I get to the drive thru, 3 or 4 cars have magically appeared.

[Kara]

My friend Shelly and I named this 'The Dryer Ball Theory' - you know the little plastic ball that you put softner in for the washing machine? I have the issue of always forgeting to take it out before I put more clothes and soap in, so then I have to dig around for it. No matter where I start if I follow the direction I want to go, it is the right next to where I started but I have to go around the entire washer because I went the other direction. So now, when I go a digging I always go the other way that I want to go...works every time I find it instantly. This also works for me in other situations such a being lost in a mall...every my fiber of my being wants to go right to find a certain store, so I go left, works like a charm.

[SEb]

how about:

the first person that need to get out of a crowded elevator is always in the back.

[Don]

My wife must have some anti-physics aura around her. Whenever she loses her keys she searches the jars of mayonnaise in our cupboard and the old-fashioned toilet in the Italian restaurant down the street before she finds them in her pocket. I then suggest she looks there first next time but . . .

[Lots42]

When you screw up your phone intro, that is when the boss is calling.

[BillF]

The scent of a dead skunk can travel at least 100 feet against hurricane force winds.

If you dare to test this law of nature, be sure to shoot a skunk while standing 100 feet away in a hurricane.

p.s. I'd love to see a few Dilbert strips devoted to some of the cast testing these obscure laws of nature.

[Lots42]

Oh for crying out loud. When people say 'It's always in the last place you look' they mean in terms of 'obviousness'.

I once thought I lost my jacket but it was hanging up. I never hang it up.

P.S. I am SO grateful that I am not alone in the 'drop something onto empty floor, lose it'

[Adrian Monk]

Whenever you put down your retainers, they will most certianly NOT stay where you put them.

[Sunny]

The most important occasion of your life, so far, will be immediatly preceded by some sort of facial disfigurement - a pimple, allergic reaction, burn, bug bite, child with a Magic Marker...

[J-Wed]

If you drop a candy corn, you will physically have to get out of your chair and on your knees to crawl under your desk to retrieve it. It never, I repeat n-e-v-e-r, stops within reach of your seated self.

[Stuart - Velkairiwyth]

When a word is mentioned that youve never heard before (Corollary in this case, AKA Theorem) It shall suddenly be used in so many places it almost seems normal.

[Keith]

There's a Murphy's Law that describes this exact phenomenon; "a tool dropped while working on a car will come to rest under the exact center of the car." This law can be applied to many dropped objects and inaccessible areas.

[bolo]

Standards! the beauty of 'Standards' is that there are so many to choose from.

[Johanna]

I found my keys in the freezer once.

[Stuart - Velkairiwyth]

Buttered toast on the back of a cat was also done in a Billy Connoly sketch.

I would think however, that since the toast wont make contact with the floor if the cat lands on its feet, whereas if the toast hits the floor, the cat also lands on its back, rules would dictate that instead of battling to be the rule that wins, the toast would simply stay off the floor (until it comes loose from the cat, then it will fall to the floor butter side down I reckon :p )

[Phil]

My wife's cat can teleport its hair inside of canned goods when it sheds. And no, you probably don't want to come over for a home cooked meal.

[Hoppitygibbit]

Whenever I'm walking outside and it's snowing, the wind will always blow the snow in my face no matter what direction I'm walking. Even when I do a 180 degree turn, the wind will suddenly change direction to keep blowing the snow in my face.

[Alyene]

A roommate that I had several years ago was infamous for misplacing things. One day, we searched out entire house for her car keys. I found them a few days later....in the crisper drawer of the refrigerator. It still baffles me to this day.

[Joaquín]

I am writing this from Argentina, and linking this with yesterday post, the web itself is frikin`cool.
Have you noticed that as soon as you stop searching for something (love, job, car keys, condoms, remote control, etc) suddenly appears? I call it life physics

[Henry]

Chalk, when dropped, will always break into three pieces. Doesn't matter how long or short, you always get three peices.

[Veda]

Here's one:

The amount of time you're late for a meeting is directly proportional to its importance. The more important the meeting, the later you reach.

If you've woken up earlier than usual to beat the traffic and reach on time, the highway you choose will be attacked by small green men who'll empty only your car of its fuel and run away with your windshield wipers.

[Yankinwaoz]

I have one I call the "Maximum Constriction Effect".

If you are ever driving on an empty two lane road, and there is bridge, more times than not you will pass the only car you have seen all while on that bridge.

If there is a cyclist on the road, 9 times out of 10 a car will pass you coming the other way at exactly the same place and time as you are overtaking the cyclist. If there is a bridge, all three of you will be on the bridge when this happens.

It is so freaky how this always happens.

[Leonel]

Never, never let your computer know you're in a hurry.

[Rich]

Rich's Theory of Gas Prices:
Any day that I am below 1/4 tank and do not fill up on the way in to work, the price will jump by at least 15 cents before lunch.

Full Tank Axiom:
The next station you pass after a fill up will be cheaper.

[lamby]

If you lose a set of keys, and you have kids, always check inside your shoes. :)

[Eric Hyche]

Hey, if "taped to the back of an old-fashioned toilet in an Italian restaurant" works for Michael Corleone, it works for me. Yes, I got the Godfather reference.

[Laurie D]

When I was a kid, I kept all of my money in a wallet. I had saved up $60. One day the wallet turned up missing. It wasn't until a year later that I found it on top of the stair-stepping machine. Now that was definitely a safe place to hide out.

[Boraxis Baugmonster]

So many people mentioned the cat and buttered toast thing that I feel obligated to provide a link to what is, IMHO, the definitive treatment of that topic:

http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=449030

Some of the physics of it gets a little technical for me, but I think it's appropriate for most DNRC members.

--
baug

[Len]

Lost something? Some people say that what you're looking for is always in the last place you look for it. That's usually because once you've found it, you stop looking.

[Alan]

if buttered toast lands buttered side down and a cat will always land on its feet. What will happen if we stick a piece of toast, butter side up on the back of a cat. Throw it out of a 3rd story window and it will hover, unable to satisfy the laws of physics.

and in time honored Star trek references - "Cap'n, I canny change the laws of physics"

[Jerry]

Here's one:

An object in motion tends to hit me in the head.

In Physics, they tried to teach me that an object in motion tends to remain in motion - something about inertia, conservation of energy and all that gobbledygook. However I have the bruises to prove the object are just going to hit my head. Now, whether this can be chocked up to the perversity of the inanimate or that some god with free will chucked them at me - who knows.

[Anthony Howe]

Law of Excellence: quality assurance testing prior to publishing always passes without incident.

Corollary of the Law of Excellence: the one time you chose not to perform quality assurance prior to publishing, is when there is a defect.

Technician's Open Axiom: always test equipment upgrades before closing the box.

Technician's Law of Closure: closing the box without testing the equipment will prove the existing of a loose connection.

[Rachie girl]

When you're in a situation which requires you to say something unbelievably witty and clever, you say something totally stupid.

I can garuntee you that very night you will be laying in bed and you will think of 101 things that you should have said, but didn't.

[Éibhear Ó hAnluain]

O Hanlon's Law:

The amount of water you gather in your clothing is directly proportional to the square of the speed at which you're travelling.

This means that the faster you go, the much wetter you get. In short, instead of cycling, walk: you won't get as wet.

This law was developed when I was in college and cycled there for 3.5km every day in Irish midlands weather. Once I was confirmed in the law, I stopped cycling to college.

O Hanlon's constant governs the absorbancy of the clothing you wear while travelling and, contrary to the name, varies based on what you are wearing.

P.S. I have yet to confirm the hypothesis that standing still in the rain means that one would not get wet at all, as stated by O Hanlon's law.

Éibhear Ó hAnluain (a.k.a. Éibhear Ó Hanlon)

[Celly]

I saw this in a Tery Pratchet book:

The intelligence of a mob is the intelligence of the dumbest member divided by the number of people in the mob

Not the exact wording but the general gist!

[Francis]

As a boy, I had a fountain pen that was able to reduce its mass. I dropped this much favoured pen one afternoon whilst in my bedroom at my parents' house. I didn't hear it hit the floor, but assumed it must logically have done so as there was no other surface between my hand when I dropped it and the floor.
I searched on all fours for it for several hours (as I say it was much favoured), but to no avail. Several weeks later, my parents had new central heating installed. This necessitated the removal of furniture and carpets from my room - still no pen. Workmen arrived shortly after to remove the floorboards. I stood by to monitor progress, but the pen never materialised. I can only conclude then that it was able to pass through matter much like a neutrino. If anyone else has a more compelling explanation, I'd be happy to consider it.

[Borg Warrior]

Sure. If you drop a cat, it always lands on it's feet. And if you drop a piece of toast, it always lands butter-side down. Therefore, if you strap a piece of toast to a cat and drop it, it will rotate in the air. A large matrix of these can be used to power a bullet train from New York to Boston.

[Chad H]

Companies selectively follow Newtown's laws of Phsyics:

An Object/A Company at rest (doing nothing) tends to stay at rest (remain doing nothing).

An Object/A Company in Motion (doing Stuff) tends to stay in motion (Only seems to apply when the stuff that its doing is actualy of no consquence, or a bad idea)

The Greater the mass (Size of Company), the more force required to change between these two states (Big companies keep following bad ideas longer, and dont do anything until its too late).

[Fred]

The law of the beach. When on the beach, sand will stick to you and absolutely nothing will get if off you, but as soon as you get into your car, the all the sand will drop off into the car.

[tojo]

>>or taped to the back of an old-fashioned toilet in an Italian restaurant

Nice Godfather reference :-)

Monday, Toosday, Thursday, Wensday...

[John]

To the person who mentioned dark dirt / light dirt, Douglas Adams (with John Lloyd) has once again been there first:

"Sutton and Cheam are the two kinds of dirt into which all dirt is divided. 'Sutton' is the dark sort that always gets on to light-colored things, and 'cheam' the light-coloured sort that always clings on to dark items. Anyone who has ever found Marmite stains on a dress-shirt, or seagull goo on a dinner jacket a) knows all about sutton and cheam, and b) is going to some very curious dinner parties." (from The Deeper Meaning of Liff)

[Phil]

When dropped, the odds of a piece of buttered toast landing on the floor butter-side down is directly proportional to the cost of the carpet.

[Carlbert]

Carlbert's 1st law of traffic lights:

The probability of the car in front of you getting through before the traffic light changes to red (resulting in you having to stop) is inversely proportional to its speed.

Is it just me?... why do I always get stuck behind the slow driver who makes it on the amber, when with a little bit more speed we could have both made it through?

This also implies that if you're behind a fast car they'll stop suddenly (unnecessarily) on the amber light, forcing you to take evasive manoeuvres.

Carlbert's 2nd law of traffic lights:

If you're at the front of the queue, the chance of additional car(s) driving through their red light on your left or right is directly proportional to how soon you move forward after your light turns green.

Well, maybe just in my country/city.

[Gordon_goosemonster]

How come you always end up wearing white trousers (pants) when you get drunk and shit yourself?

[G]

I appear to have some sort of weird forcefield generated from the front of my body, which makes old people in the street walking ahead of me stop dead in their tracks when they are 3 feet away, so that I almost break my neck trying to avoid crashing into them.

It also works as a tractor beam so that if any old person is walk at either side of me, they will be pulled across in front of me, at which point the movement killing field comes into play.

Relating to the key thing - when you're looking for misplaced things, why do people say "it's always in the last place you look"...talk about stating the bleeding obvious! Do they they think that after I've found whatever I'm looking for, I was going to keep searching for a while!?

[Mike Short]

"A watched pot never boils."

Nonsense! Of course it will boil. It just takes much longer...

[Rage]

Ear phones left alone for a reasonably long period of time tend to get entangeld into an inextricable mess.

[Ed]

Mrs. Newtons Law of Motion - Husbands at rest tend to remain at rest , until acted on by a nagging wife. Ed's Law of Applied Force - If you push on the door hard enough, it will come open - even if the little sign says pull.

[Carlo]

After reading several comments, I can't help thinking that Murphy seems to be an optimist

[Shannon Knowles]

Characters named Sourpuss disappear never to be seen again *sobs*

[opl]

I'm the seventeenth to consider this is Murphy's Law disguised.
Often ignored by scientists (at least officially in their written works) but it can be verified everyday by people, contrary to many obscure laws of nature.

Did you ever see the laws of cosmology in action? When was the last time you saw a quasar or a 43" deviation of light near the Sun?
And Murphy's law? Five minutes ago!

[More]

A flying object will head for the nearest cup of liquid.

A flying object will head for the hottest liquid.

The liquid will spill to the object nearest which is not suited for liquid (keyboards or electronics), except when it can spill into someones lap.

[Penina Rosenzweig]

Yes, I have developed a corollary to Einstein's Theory of Relativity that I call the Rule of Constant Matter, which specifically involves socks and wire hangars. Since I certainly don't feel more energetic when the amount of matter is perceived to be reduced, then I believe the amount of matter in the universe must somehow remain constant. It is therefore apparent to me that when socks go missing in the washer or dryer, they slip into a fold in the fabric of the universe and re-emerge as bent, unusable wire hangars in nearby closets.

I am working on another constancy corollary that involves typos, deleted letters, and missing letters, but I haven't worked it all out yet. Suffice to say that chance can't explain why my fingers "accidentally" add certain letters to words during fits of spastic typing, only to skip those SAME LETTERS a little further on in my document.

[Cranston Snord]

Because A) a cat always lands on its feet (on the floor) and B)the buttered side of the toast always lands on the floor - if you strap a piece of toast to a cat's back (buttered side up) then neither the cat nor the toast can land on the floor.

Antigravity!!

[Bertram Henze]

Law of unlikely necessity: whatever you take to use will prevent the situation of usage from happening. Take an umbrella to make sure it won't rain. This law was successfully utilized to run the cold war: lots of nuclear missiles were deployed to prevent any missile usage.

[lyn]

Lynette's Law
when you get home and turn the TV on, it will invariably turn out to be about 5-10min before the hour, which means there is nothing on but commercials.

Happens to me about every day now. And not just because i come home at the same time every day, i can be at home for hours, the moment i decide to turn on the TV, i'll look on the watch and guess what the time will be.

Maybe i have some internal clock which prompts me to watch tv just before the hour turns. if that's the case, then the dam thing is broken, God better fix it.

[Kevin Gibbs]

Lost things are always the "last place you look"... Why would you continue looking if you knew where the item was? ¨

Ps: My mobile phone was recently hiding under the back seat of my car... conveniently switching itself off... even though i never sit in the back seat

[James]

I've had the displeasure of moving three times in the past two years and I've found this:

The force one exerts to lift a box is in a negative proportional ratio to the weight of the box.

For example: A small box that looks light will cause no end of back pain when one lifts it improperly. Or, a large box that looks heavy will give one a split lip when one lifts it like it is actually heavy.

[yatpay]

I don't have any weird laws of physics for you, but I thought it might give you a chuckle to know that my exact thought process mere moments ago was "A pogo stick and a coffee maker? Oh yeah! I need to go read Scott Adams' blog!"

[yatpay]

I don't have any weird laws of physics for you, but I thought it might give you a chuckle to know that my exact thought process mere moments ago was "A pogo stick and a coffee maker? Oh yeah! I need to go read Scott Adams' blog!"

[JBange]

"Socks in the dryer"

Already explained, actually. The dryer is too hard to escape, so they slip out earlier. They disappear in the WASHING MACHINE, where it's easy to use the agitation to acrobat-flip up over the side of the tub into the case of the machine. Do you count your socks when they're wet and going into the dryer? I bet not! They're not slipping out some impossible tiny door in the dryer, they've already made good their escape!

[JBange]

"The Fifth Dimension FREAKIN EXISTS. I was running, with a key, and I accidentally dropped it, and I saw it fall into a tiny patch of grass...and vanish. I swear I looked exactly where it fell, and it was gone. It fell and was swallowed by a vortex to another space. I saw it fall, and disappear."

I dropped a key once in the middle of a linoleum floor. Not only did *I* see it hit the ground, but two others did as well. We heard it bounce off the floor, saw it rise about an inch into the air, and then freakin' VANISH. Empty linoleum floor in a science classroom! No place to hide! It was just effin' gone. I keep thinking there has to be a rational explanation, but it had nothing within 2 feet of it when it went away. Mysteries of the universe, i guess.

[Stew Hawke]

I have never missplaced my (very important for work etc) keys in the last 10 years. Never not even for a minute. I always know exactly where they are.

So much for the comments on that law of physics.

So how is this possible? Well 24 hours a day 7 days a week 52 weeks of the year they are attached to my belt with a chain. The first thing I do when I change my pants is swap the belt, chain and keys.

Stew

[Stew Hawke]

Where do all the socks go?

I always have to buy more socks, they just vanish. But I have been told the answer. It seems that socks are the larval state of coat hangers. In the dead of night they creep out of the sock draw, slither over to the wardrobe, hang themselves up and change into coat hangers.

I never buy coat hangers or get drycleaning done. I have lots of coat hangers but I need to buy more socks.

Stew

[Stew Hawke]

Many years ago I had a box of Kleenex on a shelf over my work bench. In a handy spot that I could just reach up and take a tissue out of the box

One day it vanished. I looked for it. I even looked under pieces of paper on the shelf. Which is odd because it was a biggish box. Also it should have been on top of that sheet of paper. This went on for some weeks.

Then one day I absentmindedly reached up and took a tissue out of the box. I looked at the tissue. I looked at the box. I looked at the tissue again and the box and the tissue and the box again.

I asked around in case anyone had taken it then put it back. They all said they didn't. I suspect someone moved it then put it back. But to this day I don't know for sure.

Stew de Baker Hawke.

[Bytesage]

Doing something good in this world is like peeing yourself while wearing black pants ... you get a warm feeling, but no one notices.

And doesn't the phrase go "It's always in the last place you would *think to* look." ??

Also I AM a repair guy and it usually DOES work when a I ask someone to show me the broken whatever. Then again many things work for me even when they have no right to do so ;-)

I might be the anti-Scott, except for that I can usually get most anyone to laugh .. with me, not at me ... oh wait.

[concatenator]

I believe that's the Feng Shui, not Physics.
Feng Shui practitioners use dropped objects to demonstrate whether you have parked the couch in the wrong side of the living room, or built a garage where there should have been a harmonious water body.

I used to annoy my brother by placing the TV remote in his house upright leaning against a mug, instead of flat on the coffee table. It's right in front of him, but he can't see it, his brain is looking for a horizontal object. He goes nuts looking for it.

[James]

Check out these babies that I invented today!

http://www.halfbakery.com/idea/Dense_20Atom_20Annihilation_20Engine#1173234689

http://www.halfbakery.com/idea/Dense_20Atom_20Launcher#1173239003

http://www.halfbakery.com/idea/Nano-tube_20Position_20Sensor#1173236620

[EngPharm]

EngPharm's Telemarketer theory #1

The probability of having a telemarketer call is directly proportional to the temperature of your dinner.

For the truly picky... it's directly proportional to the absolute value of the difference between your food's temperature and room temperature. Thus accounting for chilled and heated food alike.

[Tyler]

"get a cat and tie one piece of buttered toast to each foot, butter side up, and toss it in the air

cats always land on their feet, and toast always land butter side down.

wooo! your cat will float"

I saw this as a comment... wasn't this experiment presented by you, Scott?

[Dave]

Some of the comments here reminded me of CPU heatsinks. Those little bastards would be easier to get off if you welded them on.

[Roni]

That's your answer for everything, mayonnaise. If we asked you what the time was you'd say mayonnaise.

We once wrote a song about this ...

"A Potato Salad is made of mayonnaise
What's the time? It's mayonnaise"

[planetheidi]

Cellphones... into toilets... like salmon returning home to spawn.

[mickie]

The Conservation of Time Theory:

Time can and will slow down before an event such as Christmas, birthdays, and long awaited vacations. The more exciting the event, the slower time will go leading up to this event. However time must be conserved. To make up for the extra time, the exciting event will pass quickly and be done before you know it. Again the more exciting the event, the faster the event will proceed.

Another time when time is slowed is when a student is sitting through a boring lecture, or an employee sitting through a boring meeting. Time will make up for itself in these situations by passing too quickly when trying to cram for a test an hour before it is scheduled, or working to meet a deadline that’s up in an hour.

Of course it is believed that if there was ever an event big enough that caused so much excitement and anticipation throughout the entire population of the world, the progression of time would come to a complete halt and never start up again, leaving each individual in the world wanting the event to come for the rest of eternity.

[Dave]

Hi Scott. I'm an engineer and have had lot's of experiences with Murphys law. I found that if I build something idiot-proof, someone will become a better idiot. Best to ya Scott from Dave :^)

[Bilious Prudence]

The sum of all vices is a constant.

You might quit smoking, or cut down on drinking, but you'll make up for the imbalance in other ways - maybe by visiting more hookers or take more hard drugs. The point is attempting to reduce your bad habits won't make you a better person.

BP

[Jane]

Shirts will always turn inside out in the laundry, regardless of how they started out.

[ozzie nick]

whenever you are looking for something, it is always in the last place you look for it.
Unless you try to disprove the fact, but then you just look stupid.

[rrk]

I am subject to the horrifying Law of Invisibility. I will be looking for something, and that something will usually be in one of the most obvious places possible. I won't notice it at all, until someone points it out to me. This has resulted in many embarrassing circumstances and having everyone think that I'm totally clueless and unobservant... hopefully a cure will be found soon.

[Walter E. Wallis]

You need to establish the Laws of Dilbert, differentiated from the engineering Laws of Murphy to acknowledge Dilbert's subordination to non-engineers.

[Dan The Car Dude]

I dunno if it's a law or not but these are words to live by:

Never cough into a full ashtray.

[n]

Greg posted :Isn't that just a tautology? When you lose something it's in someplace you haven't looked. Deep.

Oh good Greg!! you are living in a different world than me, if i lose keys and look into my jacket, i dont find them till next winter when i wear the same jacket. dont even ask.

[Riley]

Law of inopportune expansion:
If one disassembles any two pieces of a mechanism, one of the liberated pieces immediately expands, making it impossible to reassemble without removing some amount of material.

Law of inopportune contraction:
If one removes the slightest amount of material from an inopportunely liberated piece of a mechanism, that piece immediately becomes too small to properly occupy its former location.

Law of self-preserving malfunction:
Any mechanism that experiences both inopportune expansion and contraction immediately acquires a permanent malfunction that prevents satisfying use of the mechanism but does not render it so defective that it can be immediately discarded.

A self-preserving malfunction next attaches itself to a human host until it passes a permanent shelter area, at which point it detaches itself and nests alongside other similarly malfunctioning mechanisms.

[Freddy]

Murphy's law: If there are more than one way to do something, and one of those ways end in a catastrophe, it will happen that way.

Law of lines: The longer you wait in line, the larger the likelyhood you are in the wrong line.

Salary axiom: The raise will be large enough to bump you into a higher tax bracket, but small enough not to make an effect on your take home pay.

Rules of life: You can't win the game. You can't break even. You can't even quit the game.

Rule of Freddy: If you use your real email, it's likely you will get spam. If you use a fake email address, it is more likely you will need whatever is sent to it.

[D. Mented]

By the way, guys who can't find an interested woman until you've got girlfriends, it works for women too, exactly the same, but it all boils down to one simple reason:
Desperation is repulsive, and indifference is attractive.
No one knows why, but try talking to someone who is interested in you when you don't feel the same, and you'll soon see the more desperate that person is, the more desperate you will feel to get away.
D. Mented

[D. Mented]

"no good deed goes unpunished"
Broken things work when the repairman comes, but fail again the same way as before as soon as he leaves.
Murphy's law: "anything that can go wrong will".
Levin's corrolary to Murphy's law: "anything that can go wrong will do so at the most inopportune moment".
I've seen a lot of my favorites already here (like 'smoke goes to the non-smoker', and methods of making rain by planning barbecues or starting the yardwork - washing a dirty car is good, too)
To everybody who noticed cats can defy the laws of physics by making themselves heavier than their bodies can possibly be or being stuck outside two minutes after you let them in or vice-versa - they do it on purpose. They've learned about the real-world laws of physics running contrary to the scientific ones, and how to apply this. (they're not stupider than dogs. They play stupid so they don't have to "work like dogs")You can't bully them out of their physics pranks, but if you treat them respectfully and appeal to their vanity, they may give you a break.
A friend of a friend has a tattoo that reads:
Man plans. God laughs.
I'm an atheist, and I still think that's a good one.
D. Mented

[Zac]

People talking of socks have made me wonder: is it in fact one sock or another. This makes me want to throw out all my old socks, buy x number of pairs of new socks, and write R and L on all of them. After y days, I count how many are missing, looking for any pattern in x and y counts.

By the way, that previous experiment idea proves that I am single, because no woman would allow her husband to write R and L on all his socks.

[Manik]

a pair of socks that lived together,
would be very soon separated forever.

[ananth]

When you walk under a over head electric wire covered with ice around it with some fallen on gound, wondering what these semi tubular ice came from, bam it falls on your head. This is learning by experience.

[jerry wolfe]

re: perpetual motion power source........

If you butter both sides of the bread, you don't need the cat.

This will make more sense if you've read the previous comments.

A more difficult approach would involve 2 cats and someone with
experience in grafting, but that might put a knot in the PETA folks
knickers.

This will make more sense if you're a Brit.

http://boskolives.wordpress.com/

[Lamber]

I agree with EvilOakWoman. Just as I was reading her reply, I heard a ringing noise coming from the adjacent room of my campus library. Following that, a lady infront of me who was talking unexpectedly to one of my collegues was cursing.

However, this did happen on sight. This must be why instead of a phone, it was a person dumbwittedly walking through the exit without having borrowed the book he was carrying.

[Amit]

The phone always rings when you are taking a shower, or worse, a dump.

[Strawman]

When you eventually find your lost keys, someone will inevitably comment: "They're always in the very last place you look, aren't they?".

Well of course they are! What did they expect? You're going to keep looking for them, once you found them?

"Oh, here are my keys! I found them! They were in that jar of mayonnaise all the time! Now, I'd better get down to that Italian restaurant and look for them there."

[Mark]

another law of reruns,
If you have heard a lot about a certain episode of a TV show and you really want to watch said episode, it will never be on. And when you do finally see the episode, every time that you watch the show afterwards, that same episode will be on.

[Carlos Michel]

Scott,

Another law: following links in your blog install virs on your PC. The link http://www.freewebs.com/gremikin/ installed a virus on my PC. If I were you, I would delete this comment.

[AD]

the ability to speed type decreases sharply as soon as someone is stood looking over your shoulder

[Tez]

When you are trying to take down a name or number over the phone, the first two pens you grab never work.

Similarly, pens are either brand new or empty. I think they go on holiday a few days after you buy them and don't come back again until they are fully spent.

Every handbag will have at least five pens rolling around in the bottom but not one of them will be easy to find, no matter how small the bag is. The only way to find one is to jam your hand blindly into the bag in search of something else, ie. your mobile phone, at which point the pen will skewer you between your fingers.

[AD]

[Am I the only one whose bowels move every time I decide to peruse at length in a book store? ]

yep exact same for me. my daughter has similar reaction after 5 minutes in a playground (but only those lacking any conveniences)

[Laughing-Fry]

I think this has been alluded to before, but...if you're trying to solve some sort of problem (say, a math equation or the like) and you have worked and thought and concentrated and strained so hard your brain hurts and you still can't think of any possible way it could ever be solved, if you ask someone for help, the solution will instantly spring into your mind the second they sit down.

[Chris Honkala]

How about Biology instead?

I don't get sick for 3 years, and my staff generally has decent health. We get short-staffed and suddenly the frickin' Plague runs through the entire staff. Guaranteed, every time. Scientific law.

[Incredipete]

I was recently introduced to Newton's Law of Important Data:

The importance of the data you store on a hard drive is positively related to the likelihood that said hard drive will fail.

And the Addendum:

The day you neglect to synchronize your hard drive with a backup device will be A) the day you make substantive and unrecoverable changes to important documents and B) will be the exact day the hard drive burns out in a spectacular manner.

[Dennis Muldownie]

On any busy, well travelled arterial highway, with gas stations every 30 miles, you will find they are all closed at night. Especially when it is cold, wet, blowing a gale, and you are running low on gas - or have run out.

If you have run out, the road will be deserted for hours. There will be no passing traffic to give you a lift to find gas. There will be no phone coverage. There will be no visible habitation or person.

When you finally get the gas and return to the vehicle (through suddenly dense traffic) you will find you have two (count 'em) flat tyres. And the Jack will be broken. And it will still be raining. Or snowing.

[mollishka]

What actually is provable by a fairly straightfoward high-school physics calculation is that if a piece of toast with jelly on it falls off of a table, it will land jelly-side down.

[EternalMarksman]

You hit it on the head, man. You just described my entire day. But this doesn't only refer to objects. The universe has a way to even everything out. For instance...

Something really great happened yesterday, and I woke up happy. This entire day was great. I was out in the sunshine and went out for lunch. I walked around an open air mall, and had a great time.

I got home, and my computer crashed.

Life, huh?

[Peter]

1.Do not underestimate the malevolence of inanimate objects.
Corollary;
The Universe hates you; and the longer you are in it, the more it hates you.
Proof? When you are young, the Universe rarely notices you for very long, and it is possible to accomplish fiddly, difficult and/or dangerous tasks with relatively little inconvenience or injury. Remember that? As we get older, the Universe notices us more and punishes us ever more severely for having the temerity to attempt such tasks.
2.The largest objects known to behave in a quantum mechanical way are crumbs.
Proof? Wipe a kitchen work surface thoroughly, satisfying yourself that it is now completely clean. Look away. Look back again quickly and already you will see a fair population of crumbs. Whilst unobserved, their crumby waveforms have collapsed all over your kitchen!