This is something that I heard about from my Astronomy teacher at West Chester. He was an odd guy, and I’ve always wondered if his ideas would prove out and whether he had actually read this somewhere reliable.
For this experiment you will need a cup and some drinking water. Not too much water. Do not flavor the water - iced tea, for example, will not work. Also, it’s probably better if you use a glass and not a cup, if you have one available. I’m not sure if that will skew the experiment or not, so if you report your results, be sure to include what you used.
There are two steps to the experiment itself. If you’re interested in helping answer the question (which I will pose at the end of the experiment, so as not to taint your results), then commit to the whole experiment right now. I guarantee that it will cause you no harm, and can be successfully completed by any person with a cup of water.
So, stop reading and get yourself a glass of water. We’ll wait. Ok, here we go…
Step one: Spit into the cup of water. I’m not talking about hocking a loogie, just gather some reasonable amount of saliva in your mouth and spit it into the cup of water. Perhaps you can think about a nice meal that you’d enjoy to get the juices flowing.
Ok, that’s the “easy” part. Step two comprises the actual test of the experiment.
Step two: Drink the whole cup of water.
Ok. Based on reading step two, which of the following best characterizes your reaction:
A) I immediately drank the cup of water and spit without question.
B) I didn’t want to drink the water and spit, but then I read more and eventually did it.
C) I didn’t spit into my cup yet, and probably won’t now that I know what you want me to do with it.
D) I’m just reading this crazy thing, I never intended to do the experiment.
Oddly, what is in your cup just came out of your mouth. I mean, it was just in there. All you’re going to do is put it back. It hasn’t even had time to do anything in the cup. Mix your spit in the water before drinking if you like. What’s the problem?
If you didn’t drink your spit, can you please give some explanation why? Write your results in the comment below!
I’m curious about the ratio of spit-drinkers to non spit-drinkers. My hypothesis (and that of my Astronomy professor) is that it will be disproportionate in favor of the non spit-drinkers. What do you think?
