Question

Preparing to clean them, you pop all the removable keys off a computer keyboard. Each key has the shape of a tiny box with one side open. By accident, you spill the keys onto the floor. Explain why many more keys land letter-side down than land open-side down.

Short answer

Keyboard keys tend to land letter-side down to lower potential energy.

Step-by-step solution

Given data

A keyboard key always falls letter side down

Change in potential

A body, when free to move under a force, always tries to move to a lower potential region.

Determining the reason why keyboard keys fall letter side down

Since the bottom of a keyboard key is empty, its center of mass lies towards the letter side. Thus if the letter side is downward, the key will have a lower potential energy than if the opposite side is downward. Hence, while freely falling, keyboard keys tend to land letter side downward.