REALLY BIZARRE RESEARCH PAPERS

CAN CHICKEN FEATHERS BE USED TO

DETERMINE THE SPEED OF A TORNADO?

Vonnegut, B. (1975). “Chicken Plucking as Measure of

Tornado Wind Speed”. Weatherwise

They can in fact! All you have to do is determine the exact

wind speed at which all of a chicken’s feathers get blown off.

After that you just apply some fancy mathematics and

voila!…you have your answer.

CAN FARTING MAKE YOU FEEL BETTER?

Sidoli, M. (1996). “Farting as a defence against unspeakable dread”. 

Journal of Analytical Psychology

Of course farting makes you feel better physically, but what

about mentally? Apparently it can, because according to these

researchers, farting can actually prevent depression.

WHAT IS THE OPTIMAL WAY TO DUNK A BISCUIT?

Fisher, L. (1999). “Physics takes the biscuit”. Nature

It’s complicated. Actually, it’s so complicated that it took an

entire research paper to figure it out.

WHAT SPECIES OF COSTA RICAN TADPOLE

TASTES THE BEST?

“On the Comparative Palatability of Some Dry-Season Tadpoles

from Costa Rica”, Richard Wassersug, 

The American Midland Naturalist

For all you “dry-season Costa Rican tadpole” lovers out there,

you can finally put your questions to rest.

CAN MAGNETS LEVITATE A FROG?

Berry, M. V.; Geim, A. K. (1997). “Of flying frogs and levitrons”

(PDF). European Journal of Physics

They can, and they did.

HOW DANGEROUS ARE COLLAPSING TOILETS?

Wyatt, JP; McNaughton, GW; Tullett, WM (1993). “The collapse of

toilets in Glasgow”. Scottish medical journal

According to these researchers, very dangerous. And as toilets

age, the danger of collapsing toilets only increases.

ARE FALLING COCONUTS DANGEROUS?

Barss, P. (1984). “Injuries due to falling coconuts”.

 The Journal of trauma

We already know that collapsing toilets are dangerous, so how

about coconuts? Canadian researchers answer our question

with a resounding yes, falling coconuts have the potential to kill you.

WHY DO SHOWER CURTAINS BILLOW INWARDS?

Anthony Ramirez (15 July 2001). “How to Avoid Being Attacked

in the Shower”. The New York Times

It’s something we have all tried to avoid, the inevitable attack of

the shower curtain. And now we have science to rescue us,

or at least explain why the curtain behaves the way it does.