Tipping The Toy

My brother phoned to remind me how much more generally nervous I should be about things, as well as to ask my opinion in an utterly pointless dispute he was having with his significant other. The dispute was over no stakes whatsoever and had no consequences of any practical value so I can see why it’d call for an outside expert. It’s more one of physics, but I did major in physics long ago, and it’s easier to treat mathematically anyway, and it was interesting enough that I spent the rest of the night working it out and I’m still not positive I’m unambiguously right. I could probably find out for certain with some simple experiments, but that would be precariously near trying, and so is right out. Let me set up the problem, though, since it’s interesting and should offer room for people to argue I’m completely wrong.