How come at 67 years old I've only just discovered this now.

[Inkubus]

A new WTF moment is indeed a great joy, and this is a stunner. Intermediate Axis Theorem.

Same thing but more detail and a beautiful explanation that I don't understand a word of. Feed your brain.

[Cheerful Charlie]

Rattlebacks!

[Inkubus]

Rattlebacks!

Dafuq?

[Thumpalumpacus]

if you don't understand it, there's no hope for me.

[Fireball]

Inky- you didn't study a lot of physics. No fault of yours, it's hard, I will readily admit. 

Here are a couple of tricks to try-

1. Put a straight pin with a model airplane propeller (or just a light thin stick) into a pencil eraser with a set of notches cut in the pencil. If you stroke it one way, the propeller (or stick) will spin one way. If you stroke the other way, the direction of spin will reverse.

2. Take any ring with a large stone in it, and spin it on a table. If you get it going fast enough, it will rotate so that the heavy part is on top.

One of the reasons this is hard to understand is because a lot of science is counterintuitive. It takes the scientific method and a lot of skull sweat to figure things out.

[Aliza]

A new WTF moment is indeed a great joy, and this is a stunner. Intermediate Axis Theorem.

Same thing but more detail and a beautiful explanation that I don't understand a word of. Feed your brain.

Nah, I suspect you've known about it. You probably just didn't realize what it was. 

It's like when you flip a tennis racket along the length, by the handle. It rolls over on it's side each time you flip it. You can test this at home with some kind of oblong object with different sized ends. Best to use something with labels that will clearly show the front and back so you can watch the rotation. 



Find something in your home shaped kind of like this and try it out.

[Reltzik]

This is why dropped toast always lands butter-side down.

.... yes, I know it isn't, but it ABSOLUTELY IS!  

[Gwaithmir]

This is why dropped toast always lands butter-side down.

.... yes, I know it isn't, but it ABSOLUTELY IS!  

Works that way with toast and jam or jelly too.

[SYZ]

Measure the width of your floorboards.

Say it's 4½ inches.  Cut a satay skewer to exactly 4½ inches length.

Drop it to the floor 100 times from at least shoulder height.

The ratio of the times it lands clear of the joins to the times it lands on a join will be roughly 22/7 = π  

          

[Inkubus]

This is why dropped toast always lands butter-side down.

.... yes, I know it isn't, but it ABSOLUTELY IS!  

[Free]

A new WTF moment is indeed a great joy, and this is a stunner. Intermediate Axis Theorem.

Same thing but more detail and a beautiful explanation that I don't understand a word of. Feed your brain.

Nah, I suspect you've known about it. You probably just didn't realize what it was. 

It's like when you flip a tennis racket along the length, by the handle. It rolls over on it's side each time you flip it. You can test this at home with some kind of oblong object with different sized ends. Best to use something with labels that will clearly show the front and back so you can watch the rotation. 



Find something in your home shaped kind of like this and try it out.

Yep.

I do it with the remote for my TV. All the buttons are up, then I toss it and it does one rotation and then when I catch it all the buttons are facing down.

Every time.

[SYZ]

Why is it that whenever I pull into a servo to refill the car, they've invariably
located the pumps opposite to the side of my car where the filler is? Is this
just crappy design or what? It's extremely irritating to have to drive around
to the other side nearly every time, and these fucking oil companies really
need to fix this.

[Aliza]

Why is it that whenever I pull into a servo to refill the car, they've invariably
located the pumps opposite to the side of my car where the filler is?  Is this
just crappy design or what?  It's extremely irritating to have to drive around
to the other side nearly every time, and these fucking oil companies really
need to fix this.

Flip the car straight up into the air.  It will do a barrel roll and land on the other side with the gas tank in reach of the pump.

[Warning]: You might lose the car in this process.

[Chas]

Why is it that whenever I pull into a servo to refill the car, they've invariably
located the pumps opposite to the side of my car where the filler is?  Is this
just crappy design or what?  It's extremely irritating to have to drive around
to the other side nearly every time, and these fucking oil companies really
need to fix this.

Get a different car.  Easy-peasy.

[Fireball]

Why is it that whenever I pull into a servo to refill the car, they've invariably
located the pumps opposite to the side of my car where the filler is?  Is this
just crappy design or what?  It's extremely irritating to have to drive around
to the other side nearly every time, and these fucking oil companies really
need to fix this.

Get a different car.  Easy-peasy.

He's got some high-side SUV that he can't get the hose over. When I go to the gas station, I pull into the first available pump (I'm still one impatient essobee). Since I'm driving a little jellybean econobox, I can pull the hose over to the other side, no matter where I am in relation to the pump. Point of fact, though- the pump is in the fuel storage tank, not there on the island. The thing on the island is merely a measuring/dispensing device..."computer", they even call it.

[brunumb]

Why is it that whenever I pull into a servo to refill the car, they've invariably
located the pumps opposite to the side of my car where the filler is?  Is this
just crappy design or what?  It's extremely irritating to have to drive around
to the other side nearly every time, and these fucking oil companies really
need to fix this.

Just back into the servo instead.  

[Cavebear]

Why is it that whenever I pull into a servo to refill the car, they've invariably
located the pumps opposite to the side of my car where the filler is?  Is this
just crappy design or what?  It's extremely irritating to have to drive around
to the other side nearly every time, and these fucking oil companies really
need to fix this.

Flip the car straight up into the air.  It will do a barrel roll and land on the other side with the gas tank in reach of the pump.

[Warning]: You might lose the car in this process.

My new Subaru Forester actually has a display telling me which side of the car the gas input opening is on. Who needs that? If you don't know which side it is on (granting a first time) you HAVE to be too dumb to drive a car. Or own a dozen with different sides.

To be fair, my first car was a 4 year old 1966 Pontiac Bonneville Convertible (and don't I wish I had THAT car back). The FIRST time I needed gas, the service guy and I couldn't find the gas input. It turned out that the license plate holder hinged down and the gas went in there.

Funny story: I was so poor back then that I bought gas a few gallons at a time. I actually ran out once and coasted downhill into a gas station on empty. Fortunately, I was flush at the time. 16.5 gallons went in. But that was nearly my rent.

[trdsf]

A new WTF moment is indeed a great joy, and this is a stunner. Intermediate Axis Theorem.

Same thing but more detail and a beautiful explanation that I don't understand a word of. Feed your brain.

Nah, I suspect you've known about it. You probably just didn't realize what it was. 

It's like when you flip a tennis racket along the length, by the handle. It rolls over on it's side each time you flip it. You can test this at home with some kind of oblong object with different sized ends. Best to use something with labels that will clearly show the front and back so you can watch the rotation.

Find something in your home shaped kind of like this and try it out.

I used to do this with the temporary passes at the office, which were on long rectangular pieces of acrylic.  I noticed that they would roll over when tossed into the air, and spent quite a bit of time (more than really justified, probably) learning how to toss it so that it would not roll over.  It's of moderate difficulty -- you have to nail the toss just right or it will roll.  I think it has to pivot exactly on the middle axis or over it goes.

[trdsf]

This is why dropped toast always lands butter-side down.

.... yes, I know it isn't, but it ABSOLUTELY IS!  

Believe it or not, this has been studied, and won the researcher an Ig Nobel in 1996.  Basically, when toast falls off a table, it only has time to make half a turn before hitting the ground.  If your table were 3 meters high, it would be able to make a full turn and would more often land butter side up.

[Little Lunch]

This is why dropped toast always lands butter-side down.

.... yes, I know it isn't, but it ABSOLUTELY IS!  

Believe it or not, this has been studied, and won the researcher an Ig Nobel in 1996.  Basically, when toast falls off a table, it only has time to make half a turn before hitting the ground.  If your table were 3 meters high, it would be able to make a full turn and would more often land butter side up.

I'd like to see a study on why heavy or sharp things always land on my big toe.
I mean, I just looked down at my big toes now and there is sooo much more floor.

[Cavebear]

I learned a trick with those small tightly-folded umbrellas. If you toss one up spinning rapidly along it axis you can always grab it with one hand. My co-workers thought I had fast hands or great vision or something. But its actually hard to not catch it. The funny thing is that they never dared try it themselves.

[Cavebear]

This is why dropped toast always lands butter-side down.

.... yes, I know it isn't, but it ABSOLUTELY IS!  

Believe it or not, this has been studied, and won the researcher an Ig Nobel in 1996.  Basically, when toast falls off a table, it only has time to make half a turn before hitting the ground.  If your table were 3 meters high, it would be able to make a full turn and would more often land butter side up.

I'd like to see a study on why heavy or sharp things always land on my big toe.
I mean, I just looked down at my big toes now and there is sooo much more floor.

You don't notice the objects that don't hurt you "the rest of the floor".  And your big toe is bigger than the other toes.  Plus, of course, there is the Earth's magnetic sphere...  

[Gawdzilla Sama]

If you look at the gas gauge in a civilized country there's an arrow on the gauge indicating which side the filler cap is on. This information isn't written across the stars so some folks miss it.

[SYZ]

...To be fair, my first car was a 4 year old 1966 Pontiac Bonneville Convertible (and don't I wish I had THAT car back).  The FIRST time I needed gas, the service guy and I couldn't find the gas input.  It turned out that the license plate holder hinged down and the gas went in there.  

Ohhhh yesss!

This one's selling for $70,000 here in South Australia.  389 V8 (6.3 litre), only 23,007km (14,290 miles):



I owned a 1977 HZ Holden (GM) sedan that had the fuel filler behind its drop-down rear license plate. So practical
as it didn't matter from which side you approached the bowser.  It also had the high beam dip-switch located
on the floor under your foot, so you could dip the lights instantly without fumbling around on a steering wheel
stalk.  Manufacturers really need to reinstate those two features.




—I now wish I had this vehicle back in my garage today.    

[TheGentlemanBastard]

Why is it that whenever I pull into a servo to refill the car, they've invariably
located the pumps opposite to the side of my car where the filler is?  Is this
just crappy design or what?  It's extremely irritating to have to drive around
to the other side nearly every time, and these fucking oil companies really
need to fix this.

You know, there's probably a reminder on your dash indicator which side the fuel filler door is one.