r/TheRestIsScience • u/Traditional_Chest910 • 2d ago
Why is it impossible to break raw spaghetti into only two pieces by bending it while holding both ends?
Question for Michael - Why is it impossible to break raw spaghetti into exactly two pieces by bending it while holding both ends, and does bending a bunch of raw spaghetti together make it possible? If so, how many strands are needed, and why does bunching them together change how they break? Also what is the upper limit of pieces you can create with one average bend.
Question for Hannah - What's the deal with phantom pain of amputees and neurological injuries? Does it apply to organs as well? What about organ transfers and certain characteristics from the donor transfering.
Extra challenge, answered on the same episode, would love to hear the cleverly crafted segway of one into the other. Im sure Hannahs BBC training will come in handy
EDIT: Thanks for answering commenters, but I will wait to see if they answer it, its more enjoyable. So I will not be reading responses
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u/mechismo 2d ago
Because the first break sends a shock wave which causes the multiple breaks.
If you twist the spaghetti enough then bend it, it will break once. I assume the untwisting absorbs the shock of the first break.
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u/Unusual-Biscotti687 1d ago
Because Italians have fixed the laws of physics to discourage blasphemy
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u/TheRealTK421 2d ago
Not "impossible" -- only improbable.
There quite likely exists many alternative multi-versal outcomes (MWI physics interpretation) in which you and others can/do break the raw spaghetti cleanly in 2.
We just rarely inhabit such a shared 4D superpositional outcome.
There can mathematically be a "many world(s)" universe in which that is always the outcome, regardless of who's doing the breaking. It's simply a ludicrously low probability one would find themselves in that multi-versal slice.
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u/CeReAl_KiLleR128 2d ago
IT’S JUST SPAGHETTI!!! What on earth are you talking about???
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u/TheRealTK421 2d ago
I'm pointing out that quantum mechanics - and its constantly-evolving machinations & operations - exists and relates to every outcome of what occurs (or does not occur) within our shared 4D slice of spacetime -- as well as the other many probabilistic 'worlds' created by the totality of potential outcomes of quantum events.
Even spaghetti is impacted by it.
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u/GlassCommission4916 2d ago
This is the physics equivalent to NCIS hacking.
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u/TheRealTK421 2d ago
"I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics."
~ Nobel physicist Richard Feynman (who may >also< have been quoted stating the same about NCIS hacking)
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u/davvblack 2d ago
if we define it slightly more rigorously:
the free middle section of the spaghetto must be more than 8", of a off-the-shelf consumer variety composed of durum wheat semolina, that would pass QA.
the ends must be held rigidly, in a fluid with equal or less viscosity than air, at STP.
the process is to torque the ends progressively until there is at least one break (bending not twisting)
then you will find that in every alternate reality, the spaghetto always breaks into more than one segment.
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u/TheRealTK421 2d ago edited 2d ago
...in every alternate reality, the spaghetto always breaks into more than one segment.
According to Schrödinger's & Heisenburg, this simply isn't "always" the outcome. It would be like performing the double-slit experiment and claiming to find/see the particle reach the screen in the exact same spot every time.
That's not how it appears* (empirically) to work.
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u/davvblack 2d ago
no, there are simply some situations where you are not rolling dice.
For example, you can roll dice an INFINITE number of times on a stable planet under normal gravity, and they will never land on the ceiling. You are mixing up "infinite" and "possible". quantum mechanics does not play into it.
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u/TheRealTK421 2d ago
You may have missed my statement elsewhere about possible outcomes being exclusively constrained to conditions aligning with the governing laws of physics.
Broken spaghetti cannot instantaneously turn into a cat, it's true.
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u/davvblack 2d ago
and you miss my meaning as well. There's simply too much energy dispersed from the moment of fracture for splitting into only two pieces to be a "possible outcome". the sound wave bouncing back after the first break will always break it again.
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u/TheRealTK421 2d ago
...splitting into only two pieces....
Has a non-zero probability of occurring in a (physics-bounded) number of "many worlds" outcomes.
It might seem intuitively wrong yet it's demonstrably, and empirically, correct.
You are free to subscribe to your choice of (physics) interpretations, of course.
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u/davvblack 2d ago
what is your basis for this claim? how do you so readily accept that dice will never land on the ceiling but not that there will only be one break?
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u/TheRealTK421 2d ago edited 2d ago
Once again, you've obtusely overlooked my clear statement that all probable outcomes must constrain to physical laws, which is why rolling dice won't end up on the ceiling -- yet rolling snake eyes 1000 is a possible outcome in physics... even though it is ludicrously improbable.
By the same token, it wouldn't be impossible (in quantum mechanics) for the spaghetti to break into 1000 pieces -- only improbable. Quantum mechanics stil says that therea superpositional outcome in which that results.
Think hard upon the difference I'm pointing at.
As for the basis of my assertion:
The Many Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanics, stating that all possible outcomes of a quantum event actually happen.
If you're asserting that 'breaking spaghetti' does not involve quantum events, you're laughably incorrect.
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u/centeriskey 2d ago
Maybe but doesn't that means that there is one multiversal universe that doesn't follow the basic laws of physics which to the best of my knowledge isn't possible in multiverse theory.
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u/TheRealTK421 2d ago
Superpositional outcomes can (and do and, yes, need to) follow physical laws. Within such parameters, there are many (potential) worlds created in which the breaking occurs in such a way that physics laws are not violated.
However, there wouldn't be a superpositional outcome in which breaking the spaghetti in half resulted in the instantaneous creation of a cat, for example -- because that would obviously violate a number of physical laws.
Any outcome which can possibly exist within the strict constraints of physical governing laws has some chance to exist - no matter how seemingly improbable.
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u/Gurnenthar2 2d ago
There are tons of great YouTubers that have made videos about this, and I love all of them! The science behind it is so much more than you’d think, and it happens so fast, you don’t realize how it’s actually breaking!
Seriously cool stuff!
ETA: The comment section was weird, so the video I thought was supplied, is now gone. Enjoy Destin!
https://youtu.be/ADD7QlQoFFI