Fake Physics: Spoofs, Hoaxes and Fictitious Science by Andrew May

Author:Andrew May
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9783030133146
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

One of the first recipients of the redefined Ig Nobel prize for physics, in 1995, was R. A. J. Matthews of Aston University in the UK. This was in recognition of a research project reported in the European Journal of Physics under the title “Tumbling Toast, Murphy’s Law and the Fundamental Constants”.

That title is strongly reminiscent of the spoof paper, mentioned in the first chapter, that was published in Analog Science Fiction in 1984: “On the Einstein-Murphy Interaction”. Matthews’s perspective and approach were closely similar too, as can be seen from the following excerpt from his paper: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 [21].

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