How to Break Dry Spaghetti into Just Two Pieces
Imagine that you only have one somewhat tiny saucepan with which to prepare spaghetti, but are in the mood for some. You will need to cut the spaghetti in half because the whole noodles are far too long to fit. Can you, however, cut spaghetti in half? Like exactly in half with no extra shards of broken glass flying around? You already know the response if you've ever cut a handful of spaghetti in half. Obviously not. When you break spaghetti, your hopes of never again having to remove tiny, shattered pieces of pasta from the burner shatter.
Every spaghetti chef in the world suffered from busted spaghetti until MIT scientists got involved. As it turns out, there is a method for cutting spaghetti into just two pieces, without any broken pieces. Pasta or not, elongated, brittle things nearly invariably break into several pieces. This occurs when pressure is applied to either end, bending the center.
Once this bend breaks, the pasta vibrates and further pieces break off as a result of the snap-back reaction. Researchers discovered that spaghetti will neatly shatter in half if it is carefully bent at 3 millimeters per second after being twisted to 270 degrees.
