Someone on the internet recently claimed to have figured out what the numbers on the sides of toasters represent. Except they were making it up.

Apparently, the numbers represent minutes, so setting it to 1 would cook your bread for one minute, setting it to 2 would cook it for two minutes. Etc.

However, that has now been debunked. The numbers on the sides of toasters do not equate to minutes. As Tom Scott easily demonstrates.

OK, so he’s proved that all toasters behave differently, with most popping the toast up well before two minutes had passed. But that shiny industrial toaster was spot on.