simont | (no subject)

Oh, I'm sick of this.

When you buy little boxes of pills – pretty much any kind of pills, be they painkillers, antihistamines, indigestion tablets, or something more serious – the box contains one or two sheets of plastic with the pills embedded in them, plus a sheet of paper giving the instructions. That sheet of paper is typically bent in a U-shape around the pill sheets.

Therefore, if you open the box at the end furthest from the bend of the U, you can take out a sheet of pills easily. Open it at the wrong end, and you are confronted with the instruction sheet, and the most convenient way to get at the pills is to close it again and open it at the other end.

I honestly cannot remember the last time I opened a box of pills and found I had gone to the right end first. I'm convinced I get the wrong end nearly every time, which means I'm doing significantly worse than I would if I flipped a coin each time to decide which end to open it at.

In fact, perhaps I should actually start flipping a coin.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The boxes should be designed to hint at the correct end to open. The correct end is the one where you have to get the instructions out, to encourage you to read them. Perhaps you're following the hints?

For the first time you open them that's reasonable, afterwards it's just a faff. I make a mark on the convenient end of the box to open at once I know which it is.

Why not take the instructions out?

Might need them if something changes, if someone else needs the pills, etc.

Surely it makes no difference which end is marked, so long as you always put the pills and instructions back in in the same way?

Having become a connoiseur of painkillers of late, my view is that it's best to get the instructions out of the way early on in your relationship with a box of tablets. If you open the end without the instructions blocking you, sure it's easier to remove the strip to get the pills, but putting the strip back in the box can fold the instructions causing the strip to not fit in the box properly, and that just leads to heartache.

I have exactly the same issue. Over and over again, I get the instructions end. It's uncanny.

With one box recently, I actually sat and memorised which way round I had to be holding the box to achieve pill-access. With another lot, I gave up, moved the paper to the other end, and continued. But Kent's right - I suppose just getting rid of the paper would be a sensible thing, as long as you feel you're familiar enough with the information contained within.

It would seem that the U shape would move the centre of gravity of the pill packet towards the U end, and so if you pick the thing up you would be slightly more likely to pivot U bend end down. Even if not, it might give you an idea of which end to open.

You could try testing this with some blue tack and a long match. Or not.

An alternate possibility: from memory, your are right-handed; maybe this gives a natural ordination when end-opening, and the packet manufacturers want you to read the instructions.

(From a packet of antidepresseants: WARNING. Reading about the side effects that may occur as a result of taking this product may cause you to exceed the stated dose by way of compensation. So for safety reasons, we've decided not to tell you about them. Everything's all right. It's fine. No problems with using this while operating heavy machinery, whatsoever. Trust us.)

Presumably, the first time you open them it makes no difference which end you open as you need both the pills and the instructions. OK, this falls apart if you've had the pills before, but either way, having to go through it once is no great effort. Mark the satisfactory end after the first opening?

i find it hugely annoying - especially as i normally go to open one end.. realise that this is likely to be the subtly hinted end for instructions, open the other.. and find instructions! gah!
i've tried left-handed opening, flipping the damn boxes like a coin.. i always get instructions.

personally i think it's in a quantum superposition that collapses on observation to present me with .. instructions.

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This may not be entirely random...

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