Have you ever tried breaking spaghetti only into two pieces? Isn’t impractical to do. Many people have tried it with small pieces.
Recently two MIT mathematicians figured out a way for breaking spaghetti strands. They demonstrated a trick to break with little twist and bend. And realized that its more fascinating.
A French physicists Richard Feynman successfully revealed long ago and explained the dynamics at work and solved the mystery. They found that a spaghetti strand produces a kick back traveling wave as it breaks. Also awarded noble prize in 2006 for the analysis.
Spaghetti Breaking Technique
The graduate students Ronald Heisser and Edgar Gridello have took up final project in 2015 as to find out a way in achieving clean spaghetti break. Edgar Gridello observed that twisting vigorously and bringing both ends in contact together causes the strand into two pieces.
The fascinating idea to Ronald Heisser have made him to build spaghetti breaking device. With clamps on the either ends to hold the spaghetti strands. The clamp on one end would rotate the strand while the other clamp would slide toward its partner until the strand broke.
Another MIT graduate Vishal patil and Heisser decided to examine with hundred spaghetti strands. By recording each strand breaking million frames per second. The outcome of test results were amazing as the strand twisted at 270 degrees will break into two half’s. As the strand twists back and unwinds to its original straightness, it will release pent-up energy in the strand so there aren’t any additional breaks.
Similarly, the technique not applicable with all types of spaghetti strands like flatter pasta like linguine. The team also found that their mathematical modelling was accurately able to predict when a piece of spaghetti would break into four pieces, rather than two.
The MIT researchers say their new work could be utilized to all the more likely see how splits frame and spread in comparably organized materials and weak structures like human bones. The mystery could lie in the pasta.
