Fasting-breaking research on breaking (and flying!) spaghetti

Posted 14 November 2005 by Nick Matzke

↗ The current version of this post is on the live site: https://pandasthumb.org/archives/2005/11/fasting-breakin.html

It's official. Flying Spaghetti Monsterism has now produced more original peer-reviewed research than "intelligent design" (aka "creintelligent designationism"). Don't believe me? Well, look at these:

Audoly, B., and S. Neukirch. 2005. "Fragmentation of rods by cascading cracks: Why spaghetti does not break in half." Physical Review Letters 85 (Aug. 26): 095505.

Gladden, J.R., N.Z. Handzy, A. Belmonte, and E. Villermaux. 2005. "Dynamic buckling and fragmentation in brittle rods." Physical Review Letters 94 (Jan. 28): 035503.

How bent spaghetti break
http://www.lmm.jussieu.fr/spaghetti/index.html

Dynamic Buckling and Breaking of Thin Rods
http://www.math.psu.edu/belmonte/spaghetti.html

Hat-tip to Peter Weiss of Science News, in his online article "That's the Way the Spaghetti Crumbles," Science News, 168(20), p. 315 (Nov. 12, 2005).

8 Comments

Rich · 14 November 2005

Pfff. Peer Review is old hat. Just write some books. The review process is even harder, I'm told.

Bayesian Bouffant, FCD · 14 November 2005

Those are all about breaking spaghetti. That seems not only cruel, but possibly blasphemous.

Andrew Mead McClure · 14 November 2005

Those are all about breaking spaghetti. That seems not only cruel, but possibly blasphemous.

That spaghetti was broken for our sins.

RupertG · 14 November 2005

When thin brittle rods such as dry spaghetti pasta are bent beyond their limit curvature, they often break into more than two pieces, typically three or four. With the aim of understanding these multiple breakings, we study the dynamics of a bent rod that is suddenly released at one end. We find that the sudden relaxation of the curvature at this end leads to a burst of flexural waves, whose dynamics are described by a self-similar solution with no adjustable parameters. These flexural waves locally increase the curvature in the rod, and we argue that this counterintuitive mechanism is responsible for the fragmentation of brittle rods under bending. A simple experiment supporting the claim is presented.

But how can they exclude supernatural forces at work? This is just naturalism, rejecting out of hand a whole set of possible alternatives - empty, bankrupt posturing deliberately denying the Truth (tm) of the FSM. Why? Because they're scared of what that admission might do to their antipastaorial world view. I fear for our children, exposed to this godless, amoral falsehood. If people start to think that spaghetti is under the influence of a 'counterintuitive mechanism' instead of the divine noodly appendage, they'll be eating instant noodles and playing naughty bottom games. You know what Pat says about that. I demand that Intelligent Fragmentation, which states clearly and undeniably that nothing may be known about anything, be taught. Two thousand years ago, someone got his fingers singed by a bowl of simmering ravioli - won't someone stand up for him? Kansas is ahead of the rest of the world in this, by Gluten. It's time the rest of us stood up to the attack by the intelligent, educated people with their carbonara sauce and 'simple experiments'. R

Sir_Toejam · 14 November 2005

I demand that Intelligent Fragmentation, which states clearly and undeniably that nothing may be known about anything, be taught

my mind becomes noodle-like just reading that. well done.

Michael Hopkins · 14 November 2005

That spaghetti was broken for our sins.

LOL! Can these studies be nominated for an Ig Nobel Prize?

Bob O'H · 15 November 2005

Can these studies be nominated for an Ig Nobel Prize?
— Michael Hopkins

Yes, simply email Marc Abrahams at AIR, and threaten him with a tin of ravioli. I nominated a previous piece of work that appeared on PT. If we're lucky, His Noodly Goodness will get his own Ig. Incidentally, Marc put up his own response to the Kansas State Board of Eddication (previous Ig winners, of course), it's here. Bob

snaxalotl · 15 November 2005

using the wrong image there. the picture above relates (I'm guessing a bit) to the pressure nodes which develop in an elastic structure under impact (i.e. a mechanical filter receiving an input with many frequency components).
The important new result is what happens when you suddenly release the end of bent spagetti, as happens when a break suddenly releases the "ends" of the two halves (or, why do you get middle pieces when you break spagetti). The relevent image is http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20051112/a6709_2242.jpg
(totally couldn't work out how to kwickcode an image)

Ramen