G-force; not the movie

I was having breakfast with a friend this morning and the waitress brought us the ketchup that my friend had asked for. When she handed it to him, he held it with one hand by the middle of the bottle and proceeded by thrusting it up and down several times. pressumably in an effort to have the ketchup leak down to the spout for easy use.

I stopped him and asked him what he was doing. Apparently, he didn't know about g-force. While I'm here I'll explain you guys too. Whether it be a ketchup bottle, mustard or whatever, a lot of people have a habit of either doing what my friend did or hitting the bottom of the bottle with their other hand while holding it upside down in an effort to make the content come down.

There's a much more effective way and it deals with the concept of g-force.

I'm sure you've all seen what happens when you get into a head-on collison with your car. Your body will shoot itself forward because something interrupted your trajectory. Having said that, that's why we wear seat-belts. Because we go forward, not back into our seat. What you know about g-force in a car accident can be applied to every day tasks, like getting ketchup out of a bottle.

Rather than hitting the bottle at the bottle or shaking it, use your free hand to hit the bottle in the front, where the cap is. Because you thrusted the bottle towards your hand but then stopped its path, the bottle stopped, but the contents had nothing to stop against so they'll continue moving in the direction of the movement.

It's a bit of a random topic but I figured it was worth mentioning considering you can apply it to every day use.

Shaking it takes about 3 seconds and doesn't have any risks of air pressuring up and squirting ketchup or mustard all over your lap.

Tate said:

Shaking it takes about 3 seconds and doesn't have any risks of air pressuring up and squirting ketchup or mustard all over your lap.

Click to expand...

Shaking = 3 seconds
smacking = 1 second

And there's no pressure build-up when you hit it also.

When you hit the bottom, you hit a hardened plastic. When you hit the front, you hit the bubbling plastic with air inside.

Tate said:

When you hit the bottom, you hit a hardened plastic. When you hit the front, you hit the bubbling plastic with air inside.

Click to expand...

True that, although I've never had a mishap.

Thanks , i did not know this! im gona go try it now

actually if it's a glass bottle at a restaurant, you gently shake it with the top of the bottle/spout aimed whered you want the ketchup on your plate, have it on about a 45 degree angle and it comes out within 3 seconds nice and smooth. NO STRUGGLE!

or you just keep it in a warm place