06/02/08

The Laws of Physics

There are certain laws of physics that my family, for some reason, just don’t believe. There are also laws of physics that make no sense but are true in families.

Here are a few physical laws that my family doesn’t know about:

1. Bathroom steam. When someone comes out of the shower in my family, they insist on closing the bathroom door behind them, and closing it tightly.

It seems they believe that the best way to unsteam the bathroom is to close it all up and leave it. I’ve tried to suggest that maybe the steam would go away more quickly if they open the door and let the steam out into the house, which is too dry anyway, but I guess they think I’m crazy or don’t know anything about physics.

2. Fitting a round shape into a square hole.

We have 3 different kinds of freezer boxes because I bought them in 3 different years. I use them all the time so we have a lot of them. The boxes of one type stack on top of each other well, they’re made to do that. But the funny thing is that, if you try to stack boxes of different types together, it doesn’t work.

I’ve tried to suggest that we make 3 stacks, one of each freezer box type. Seems logical to me. But no! Everyone tries to stack them wherever, which doesn’t work, so in the end they just throw them into the drawer. 

3. Getting clothes into the hamper.

We have a hamper to put dirty clothes in. We have a pretty good system where, every day or 2, I take clothes out of the hamper and wash them. I know what clothes are dirty because they’re in the hamper.

That part is OK and everyone understands it. The part they don’t want to accept is how the clothes get into the hamper. For example, if you leave dirty clothes on the red couch in the living room, they are not going to magically fly into the next room into the hamper.

Even more amazing, if you put clothes on the floor next to the hamper, they are not going to jump up into it! They really do need a human to help them through that last step.

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Then there are the laws of physics that don’t seem logical, but are true inside families.

1. Bean bag chairs.

If you are walking through your house in the dark, you can pretty much navigate around anything (at least I can). However, bean bag chairs are an exception. If there is one one on the floor and you walk into it, there is no way you can do anything else but fall down. Even if you just step on the very edge of the thing, you can’t just walk around it (I mean, the thing is round, it shouldn’t be too hard). You always end up falling.

2. Empty toothpaste tubes

The toothpaste tube is almost empty. Everyone in the family has given it up as empty and moved on to using the newly-bought toothpaste tube.

Now, if you leave that almost-empty tube in the bathroom and the only person left using the old one is the mom in the family (who would actually like to use the new toothpaste but feels like she should use up the old one first), then the toothpaste actually NEVER runs out!

It’s the most amazing thing! It can last forever.

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VOCABULARY: Steam: höyry; Freezer box: pakasterasia Stack: pino, pinota; Hamper: pyykkikori; Bean bag chair: säkkituoli: Toothpaste tube: hammastahnatuubi