Newton's Fourth Law

     Sir Isaac Newton clearly did not have a daughter, because if he had had a daughter he would have written a fourth law of motion. I imagine it would have read something like this:

A teenage daughter will expend the minimal amount of energy required in completing a task that a parent nagged them into completing.

     Sophie recently demonstrated proof of this law left undiscovered by a daughterless Isaac Newton when making herself some food. Notice I did not say cooking, that will have to be addressed in another entry. While preparing a gourmet dinner for herself of chips and bean dip, consisting of canned refried beans mixed with cheese and microwaved, she left out the half used can of refried beans on the counter. She was told repeatedly to put the beans into the fridge. The task was eventually completed, I am sure only after Julia raised her voice. Upon opening the fridge this is what we found (see photo).

     Yes, that is the can of remaining refried beans inside a Tupperware container in the fridge. I guess opening the drawer, taking out the plastic wrap, gauging the appropriate length of plastic, tearing it off, putting it on the can, opening the fridge, pushing the can onto the first shelf you see, and of course leaving the plastic wrap out on the counter until nagged into putting it away obviously required too great of an expenditure of energy.

     

     Like any universal law, the discovery and recognition of Newton's Fourth Law of Motion would surely have led to at least two corollary laws: 

1. A teenage daughter will not complete any task that a parent wants them to complete until they have been nagged into motion.
2. If a teenage daughter completes a task that a parent would want them to complete without having been nagged by a parent, she wants something.