News How Slippery Is a Banana Peel?

nsaspook · Sep 19, 2014

http://www.improbable.com/ig/winners/#ig2014

https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/trol/7/3/7_147/_pdf

Shortly after banana was imported to North America in the mid-nineteenth century, it became common sense that banana skin is slippery and sometimes causes accidental slip [1]. Then, banana skin has been often referred as a slipping tool by literatures. Under this situation, anyone could not doubt the lubricating ability of banana skin and dare not measure the friction. The simple question how much value frictional coefficient under banana skin has not been answered, yet. There must be some academic interest in this quest

lisab · Sep 20, 2014

Lol, I love the Ig Nobels! But I disagree that the toxoplasmosis research qualifies. To me, that's a fascinating subject. We've had discussions about it here -

https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/human-host-manipulation.451184/#post-3004679

Did they think it qualifies just because it involves cats?

Bandersnatch · Sep 20, 2014

lisab said:

Did they think it qualifies just because it involves cats?

I think it's more because it is in essence research on the crazy cat lady.

That it's got a sninister mind-controlling undertone doesn't help.

On a second thought, it was probably voted in by the people infected by toxo, subtly infulencing their hosts' behaviour to stave off further research that could lead to compromising its dominion over the human race.

mheslep · Sep 20, 2014

Since 2010 it has been proven possible to win both the Ig Nobel and the Nobel. Andre Geim won the Ig in 2000 for levitating frogs in magnetic fields, followed in 2010 with the real thing for the discovery of Graphene.

http://www.improbable.com/2010/10/05/geim-becomes-first-nobel-ig-nobel-winner/