Chronology Current Month Current Thread Current Date
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Prev] [Date Next]

Re: Breaking sticks or spaghetti




On Thu, 29 Jan 1998 JBRAUNSDORF@delphi.com wrote:

When one takes a light stick or a piece of uncooked spaghetti and holds it near
the ends and flexes it it sometimes does not break into two pieces but into
three. You end up with one piece in each hand and a short middle section
which flies off as a projectile.

In the most recent of the NOVA episodes that cover Feynman, the founder
of Thinking Machines Corp. (whose name I forget) illustrates Feynman's
undying curiousity about nature with exactly that problem. The two of them
were making a spaghetti dinner, and observed just what Jim describes.
They spent the rest of the evening making models and testing them.
However, he doesn't say what they concluded!