Flippin toast

[JuanKing]

I just dropped a bit of unbuttered toast. If I kept droppin it, say all day, it would drop about 50/50 each side. If it possibly could fall 100/0 one side, how come it never does this? What's stoppin it?

[Skids]

There's nothing stopping it falling 100% on one side. The probability of this happening are a huge amount less than it falling on both sides throughout the day simply because there are more combinations from 50/50 to 99/1 then there are 100/0.
Its the same as the Lottery, there is exactly the same chance of the numbers coming up 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 as there is for any other combination. The probability that it will come up is very slim because there are a shed load of alternate combinations.

Or something like that.

[JuanKing]

kind of gettin u thanks. i didn't figure the greater number in that bracket thing.

[johntheplamf]

Surely it wouldn't take all day to drop it 100 times?

[JuanKing]

It would if you were Juan King

[johntheplamf]

Tis true, i bow to your superior knowledge.

[ugly_bob]

Yeah, but...

According to Murphy's law it will ALWAYS land butter side down!

It's actually been proven that it's more likely to do this due to the height of the table and the fact the toast only gets a chance to flip over once on the way down. There is a great link to explain all this, but I can't remember it. Have a look through some back answers, I'm sure it was here about a week ago

[JuanKing]

butter?

[magicdice]

The side which is facing upwards when you drop it from table height will be facing downwards when it hits the floor. The butter is just a marker for which side is which.

Mythbusters did something on this, but I missed the end of it.