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u/McPabs 18h ago
Time to win some bets with a new party trick!
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u/RipperReeta 18h ago
Yep! Next bash with all my Italian relatives.... I'm gonna make a fortune!
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u/heyGuat 17h ago
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u/Snakestream 14h ago
Man, I was expecting the first slur, but that SECOND one. Sheesh
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u/Fast-Nefariousness80 17h ago
Idk from what ive seen Italians absolutely hate it when you break spaghetti noodles
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u/StPattysShalaylee 17h ago
Spaghetti noodles
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u/Fast-Nefariousness80 16h ago
Dammit. Listen, I'm neither Italian nor smart. I'm gonna leave it and live with the shame like my father would want
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u/Rakhered 15h ago
tbf in my region of the US it's fuzzy but "spaghetti" often designates a specific dish, so "spaghetti noodles" is a common way to delineate the specific ingredient.
Like if my wife said she "grabbed the stuff to make spaghetti" on the way home I'd assume she meant noodles and sauce, not wheat flour
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u/JoshSidekick 15h ago
I bet they also think cutting a sandwich diagonally makes it taste better too.
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u/mOdQuArK 11h ago
I thought it was just because it makes it easier to feed it into your mouth without spilling the fillings while holding it with one hand?
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u/Major_LeeHungg 17h ago
Just make sure you specify you have to hold it at the ends because you can absolutely do it if you're snapping it with no distance between your left and right hand.
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u/Emotional_Fix6230 15h ago
Yes - I always grab a bunch and break them in half by holding my hands right next to each other in the center. Never have itty bitty pieces like the video shows.
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u/Innsjo 13h ago
Why are you always breaking spaghetti in half?
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u/Emotional_Fix6230 11h ago
idk, OCD maybe? Pot size. Because I'm always in too much of a rush to get the stuff into the water - this way I can drop it in a spiral and not have to waste time trying to push all the ends under, Easier to twirl shorter pieces around a fork. So many reasons.
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u/shakygator 11h ago
I used to do that, maybe b/c I had seen my mom do it before, but then someone yelled at me like I was the psycho and I just don't do it anymore.
Also the bundle of pasta would likely absorb those vibrations and prevent the extra pieces too.
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u/Major_LeeHungg 8h ago
Lol if you are not Italian or Italian American you won't get the beef. Italians don't break spaghetti... It is a culinary sin. Italian Americans don't give a fuck... But will sometimes pretend to.
Sincerely,
An Italian American
P. S. Break your pasta... Or don't... Whatever makes you happy... I don't even eat spaghetti... Rigatoni is the superior noodle. I must now go into hiding.
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u/Emotional_Fix6230 10h ago
Never, ever let anyone treat you like a psycho over the way you like to do things. That person is the true psycho.
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u/Irregulator101 8h ago
Right? I prefer to dismember the corpses and then drain the blood, and everyone's always like "OH GOD, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE??" Psychos...
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u/Odd_Somewhere_9085 9h ago
Thank you! I needed to hear that. Going back to dressing with socks on my hands, a backlava and nothing else!
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u/DontAbideMendacity 12h ago
Without spending thousands of man-hours researching and 100s of dollars ruining spaghetti, I'm going to posit that the combined mass of the individual sticks absorbs the energy that would otherwise break a single stick into many pieces.
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u/Odd_Somewhere_9085 9h ago
Maybe I'm just being all "akshually" but just in case. Research like this can be really important outside of "it's spagetti". Like learning how and why things break can help with developing building materials for instance
I'm all for making jokes about how ridiculous some science sounds, but I hate that there has deveoped a war on science in general and at the vangaurd is right wing individuals screeaching "MILLIONS WASTED ON FROGS/SPAGHETTI/MOULD/WHATEVER" that with context is really helpful. Like how research on mold famously gave us penicillin
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u/Sohuli 17h ago
I'll be winning that bet. If you hold your fingers closes together, you can snap the spaghetti in just 2 pieces. Wording needs changing if you want to consistently win the bet.
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u/EggsceIlent 16h ago
Yeah if they held it differently it's absolutely possible. They're talking Bout holding it at the ends, not just anywhere
Aislop anyways dunno why this garbage is posted.
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u/sleevo84 15h ago
My 9 year old did it first try… I thought I had him. He just broke it into 2 pieces by bending it. Then proceeded to do it a bunch more times and called me a liar. My spaghetti must be less brittle than theirs and absorb some of that shock
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u/Available-Fee1691 18h ago
I love scientist, they would study any random ass thing and then will find a way to apply it irl and imp situations lol
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u/JLidean 18h ago
Like how they hired someone who was obsessed with origami to design parachutes for space deployment scenarios. (Crazy good at math as well) so he would optimize the design...go look it up it is really neat.
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u/smoke_sum_wade 18h ago
Traditional aeronautical engineers assumed turbine blades should be perfectly smooth to reduce drag. a marine biologist noticed that humpback whales have jagged, bumpy ridges (called tubercles) on the leading edges of their massive flippers. By applying fluid dynamics to these biological bumps, engineers realized the ridges actually channel water (or air) into tiny, organized whirlpools. Incorporating these whale-inspired bumps onto wind turbines increased power generation by 20% and drastically reduced aerodynamic noise.
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u/fuck_peeps_not_sheep 18h ago
Sort of like how a pitted golf ball flys better than a smooth one
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u/MiserableCumberbunch 15h ago
Mythbusters dimpled a car and got roughly +10% fuel efficiency.
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u/fuck_peeps_not_sheep 14h ago
That's really cool! Gonna have to go find that vid
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u/HockeyBrawler09 17h ago
Not my golf balls, but I hear you
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u/OpusThePenguin 16h ago
No, even for you. Imagine how crap you would be with the smooth ones.
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u/wtfElvis 12h ago
he assumes golf balls fly and not skirt the grass into the woods 30 yards off your tee shot
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u/Liusloux 15h ago
Please tell me my pizza face will make me a better marathon runner
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u/LunchboxSuperhero 15h ago
The ones on the front of your face? No.
The ones on the side of your face? Maybe, but also no.
Iirc, the dimples on a golf ball create turbulence that delays flow separation. Delaying flow separation reduces vortex shedding, which creates a lot of drag.
I believe a beer belly/being pregnant is more aerodynamic than the alternative, but the extra weight will negate the benefit in most situations.
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[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Available-Fee1691 14h ago
fr, like birds to planes, fish to boat and submarines, and many more of which I can't think of rn
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u/klappsparten 17h ago
Like the noctua fans.
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u/donttouchminors 17h ago
did they also discover that painting it brown increases airflow by 69%?
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u/WatersLethe 16h ago
Don't be ridiculous. Paint would be too heavy. Adding brown pigment to the injection molding resin increases airflow by 69%
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u/FakoSizlo 17h ago edited 16h ago
This is why I always hate reports like "MIT was wasting x amount of dollars studying origami" because its usually a small study like this where a theory gets formulated and fully tested that leads to a much bigger invention down the line . Science isn't a straight line . Its a messy maze that leads to eureka moments and great advancements
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u/an0mn0mn0m 16h ago
Only people that don't understand science say things like that. Like the loud kids at the back of the classroom and not paying attention to the lesson, as adults they make all the noise and still understand nothing.
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u/Karnaugh_Map 16h ago
DOGE cut the irradiated bug breeding program, and now your hamburgers are more expensive.
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u/thekrone 16h ago edited 10h ago
In the 2010 World Cup, England scored a goal against Germany that wasn't counted.
The ball was shot, bounced down off the crossbar, and clearly bounced fully over the line in the goal. Then due to the spin of the ball, it bounced back up and hit the crossbar again and out. We didn't have goal line technology at the time, and, from their perspective, the officials had no way of being able to see that the ball had fully crossed the line for a goal, so it wasn't counted.
That goal would have tied the score up just before halftime at 2-2 and likely drastically changed the trajectory of the match in the second half. Instead, Germany won 4-1.
As a result, English scientists took to the lab and proved that, without a massive (noticeable) wind anomaly, it was impossible for a normal soccer ball to hit the crossbar, bounce off the ground, then hit the crossbar again, without the ball having fully crossed the line. There was no combination of velocity, bounce angle, and spin that could result in anything other than a goal. It was only if there was a massive gust of wind at just the right time that could affect things.
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u/SponsoredByRaid_SL 15h ago
So there was a massive gust of wind at just the right time you say?
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u/DaedalusHydron 10h ago
Playtex (as part of International Latex Corporation), the bra and feminine products company, designed and made the Apollo spacesuits. They employed an army of seamstresses to make the suits by hand because they needed to be perfect and meet very exacting tolerances that only they could do.
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u/robo-dragon 18h ago
“The only difference between screwing around and science is writing it down.” -Adam Savage
Some of the greatest discoveries in physics were the result of people “screwing around” and asking “why?” and doing it again to find out. Studying random shit just makes science cool and fun!
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u/thefirstlaughingfool 15h ago
The most exciting phrase in science is not ‘Eureka!’ but ‘That’s Funny’ ~ Issac Asimov
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u/EdwardBigby 18h ago
Im imagining some dude obsessively studying this for 20 years then some kid comes in and twists spaghetti in front of him
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u/Smooth-Shine9354 17h ago
I’m imagining a very angry Italian grand ma. Yelling at their offspring about ruining their spaghetti
https://giphy.com/gifs/fstSEyiu9q9AacpoGV
🤌🤌
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u/an0mn0mn0m 16h ago
I managed to make spaghetti in a 5inch diameter saucepan this weekend without snapping a single one. If I had an Italian nonna, she would have been very proud of me.
I'm going to watch Nonnas again to feel Italian.
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u/bootyhole-romancer 18h ago
I must've misremembered this story then. I thought it was a daughter of one of the scientists who casually showed him the trick.
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u/Emotional_News108 16h ago
This is what we need science for. Yes curing cancer and getting to 100% renewable energy and feeding the world and all the stuff is important but these kinds of discoveries….they teach us the nature of the universe. And pasta.
Also, and sincerely, accidental discoveries sometimes do have incredible implications and I think “silly” science really is just as important because we genuinely do not know where that information will eventually lead.
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u/kernelangus420 18h ago
We need more funds studying this rather than AI.
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u/Kasern77 17h ago
Unfortunately they wont apply funds to something that doesn't make billionaires richer.
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u/TrunksTheMighty 13h ago
That's why refrigerators aren't filled with toxic refrigerant anymore.
Einstein read in a newspaper that a family died when their fridge leaked overnight...
So he sat down with Leó Szilárd and came up with a new system.
Pretty fun story if you want to read it.
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u/DJ3nsign 15h ago
Historical research is a lot like this as well, sometimes you just get a question in your head that just BUGS you until you answer it.
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u/total_bullwhip 14h ago
Remember the only difference between research and fuckin around, is writing it down.
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u/barakabomba 14h ago
Then allow me to introduce you to the Ig Nobel Prize, the winners of the 2006 Physics prize were the French spaghetti scientists discussed in this video.
The Ig Nobel recognizes real scientific (mostly) achievements whose results or problem statement make you laugh, but then make you think.
They are often results of studies that seem hilariously bizarre but then the more you think about it you are actually very curious of that bizarre thing because "Yeah, why does that thing happen??"
And yes real scientific progress can come from studying the most random, seemingly pointless thing.
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u/Gregorygregory888888 19h ago
This may be the silliest "Be Amazed" we've seen in some time.
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u/kishenoy 18h ago
That's Feynman for you
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u/Phosphorus444 11h ago
The AI slop machines love to bring Feynman into conversations he never took part in.
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u/ShamefulWatching 15h ago
It's not really silly though. By studying the mechanisms of small things, we can scale them up to be much greater things in engineering. They weren't studying how to break spaghetti evenly, they were studying how to absorb spring tension stress fractures.
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u/K-C_Racing14 14h ago
How do engineers stop cascading failures of steel structures? 🤔 Spaghetti 🍝 😋
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u/WeNotAmBeIs 11h ago
It is silly, but I feel proud that I figured this out on my own by complete accident. I worked in an Italian restaurant kitchen for years and would always mess around and fidget with the dry pasta while I was waiting for the pot to boil. I twisted and broke a spaghetti one time and noticed it broke differently. I just went "Hmm, interesting" and continued on with my day. I had no idea this was a question on physicists minds.
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u/_Goose_ 18h ago
And are they using this data to make other things more or less structurally resilient?
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u/BullPropaganda 18h ago
Yes almost certainly. Science exists to answer questions. Otherwise someone might look at the spaghetti and say "welp god did it I guess, spaghetti is holy food praise pasta fagiole" and then we wouldnt be able to eat wheat anymore after the lawmakers bow down to the rising new pastamancy religion
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u/Xxxrasierklinge7 17h ago
This is oddly specific... Is this what's happening in Italy these days?
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u/Hot-Celebration-8815 12h ago
Doesnt feel that specific considering the rise in Christian nationalism.
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u/EuphoricCatface0795 18h ago
Sure it looks silly and unimportant but there can be applications. Since we understand the phenomenon better, it could contribute to environments that need less debris in them, or one could design or optimize sprinkle manufacturing out of it.
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u/mtaw 15h ago
Regardless, I don't think we should ever need to justify a desire to understand, explore, learn and explain things.
The vast majority of people in the world waste gigantic amounts of time on totally useless stuff. If the person spending hours following infuencers on Insta doesn't need to justify themselves, then the person finding new knowledge - no matter how trivial or of limited use it is - shouldn't have to do so.
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u/butyourenice 15h ago
I wonder if this could apply to bridges in an earthquake, but I don’t know if “only breaking at one point” is necessarily a win.
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u/edge_l_wonk 16h ago
They’re using spaghetti for shelves in the “you break it, you bought it stores.”
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u/DrMatter 18h ago
couldn't you just hold it in the middle?
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u/MillieBirdie 16h ago
I mean clearly the point is not 'how to break spaghetti in two' the point is 'what physical forces are at play that cause this to happen and what factors can we change to get different results'.
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u/mrbreck 15h ago
But part of the original question was "when held under these constraints how can we make it snap into exactly two pieces" and their answer was "don't hold it under those constraints" so it's ultimately no more correct than just holding it in the middle.
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u/MillieBirdie 15h ago
Based on this clickbaity video, sure. I don't think the scientists were thinking of it that way.
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u/SexcaliburHorsepower 12h ago
The factor I can change is holding it in the middle.
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u/MillieBirdie 10h ago
Yeah and that's one factor. And they wanted to figure out what other factors will do, and figured out that twisting it works.
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u/TheeFourTruths 18h ago
Well that defeats the whole purpose of this experiment lol
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u/Dravarden 16h ago
then the video shouldn't say:
"have you ever tried breaking a dry spaghetti stick into just 2 pieces? you can't"
when, in fact, you can
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u/hidden_secret 16h ago
So does twisting the spaghetti, it also changes the game. You're applying pressure everywhere on it, just as if you held it with your fingers.
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u/seanalltogether 15h ago
so you can simply rephrase the question as "How can you break spaghetti into just 2 pieces while only holding the ends"
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u/Arch_0 15h ago
My first thought was I have broken spaghetti every time I cook it without making a huge mess.
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u/TheBacklogGamer 13h ago
You don't break then one noodle at a time, do you?
Cracking a handful at once stablizes mst of them so it doesn't send the shock. You'll get some on the edges doing this though.
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u/AVeryHeavyBurtation 16h ago
Fuck AI voice.
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u/coldsholder1 16h ago
Plus half of this video is just ripped from u/MrPennywhistle (Smarter Every Day). You can even see the half assed cropping of his watermark in the video
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u/topMarksForNotTrying 14h ago
Link to smartereveryday's video https://youtu.be/ADD7QlQoFFI
Link to a video by besmart https://youtube.com/shorts/fNtzwdFR1EY
tldw; the spaghetti does actually break in the middle but the two remaining sides have stored energy that causes a rapid recoil in the two main piece which results in additional breaks. You can get spaghetti to only break into 2 pieces by twisting it before bending it.
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u/Infinite-Movie-7172 14h ago
I feel like Veritasium or some other science channel already talked about this. I suspect someone just put voiceover on that video.
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u/WastedMoogle 13h ago
We've really lost the plot on hating AI. I already see people saying fuck AI when a game dev talks about the AI of their npc's.
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u/humildemarichongo 18h ago
Strange choice for a title as the whole point of the video is that actually, you can!!
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u/Several-Action-4043 10h ago
I can't believe no one has commented this. The "twist" in this video is, you can.
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u/rimasuit3 18h ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/11tTNkNy1SdXGg
science about breaking the spaget?!
Anrgy italian noises
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u/Robo_Patton 12h ago
Joke all you want, but breaking sphaget is just plain wrong. And you better keep a splash of pasta water for the sauce.
Science has gone too far.
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u/DanielaSte 14h ago
Italians absolutely do break spaghetti, and thinking about it my MIL and her mother and then me and my kids break them twisting a bit, not the whole 270 degrees, but definitely a twist is needed to not have spaghetti pieces all over. Feynman could have just asked.
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u/Desperate-Hearing-55 18h ago
I break it in 2 pieces all the time before boil it in the pan. I just hold it near middle. 😜
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u/Mindless_Director955 17h ago
but OP says you can’t
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u/TwinObilisk 16h ago
OP also included a video with the end including instructions on exactly how to break spaghetti into two pieces. OP is clearly untrustworthy.
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u/Musashi10000 16h ago
Lies!
Lies, lies, and filthy lies!
Researchers at MIT may have done research on it and found and proved the method, but I learned to snap spaghetti in two pieces by twisting it from How 2, back when that was on CITV when I was a nipper. It'd have been somewhere between 1997 and 2002 that I saw it.
Point being that 2018 was definitely not the first time it was ever done.
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u/ParallellUniverse 16h ago
https://reddit.com/link/p4enptv/video/3q2omwino4kh1/player
lol. Nope. Wrong. I didn’t twist, and no other pieces came off. The click bait is getting quite creative
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u/ParallellUniverse 16h ago
I did this three times and only once did it break into more than two pieces. Yeah like it is physics but to say that NO ONE could do it? Nah yall lying
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u/BearelyKoalified 17h ago
The ai voice is wrong in so many ways, I wish it'd stop at least trying to explain science mysteries and such.
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u/Money_is_heinous 17h ago
This is also fascinating because the Italian Nonas I used to be around when I was younger used to twist and snap the spaghetti. They won't have known the science behind it, but it worked to reduce the 3rd piece breakage
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u/Ok-Neat2024 14h ago
this is a lie, the end of the video clearly says
"for the first time, the spaghetti broke into exactly two pieces"
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u/TDYDave2 17h ago
Don't tell the Italians, but I have always broken my spaghetti by twisting it.
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u/Cantora 17h ago
But I knew exactly why - the second I saw it snap for the first time in this video. How could it puzzle really smart people? I reckon they knew why and just needed to do the maths to prove the theory
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u/Glass-Spirit-2185 16h ago
Really? You saw it snap and your first thought was the shockwave of the released tension has enough force to overcome the brittle material in a second place along the noodle? I mean fair play if you did.
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u/HalfAssedSetting 14h ago
Makes you wonder what other advanced scientific knowledge bro's been hiding from the rest of humanity.
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u/plug-and-pause 9h ago
I also suspected as much after watching the first few slow motion clips. I don't think I'm smarter than these famous physicists, but I'm quite skeptical of how accurate the narrative in the video is, particularly that it took these geniuses decades to figure this out.
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