My Structures Class Never Was Catered

In this article the Science News reports that spaghetti rarely breaks into just two pieces. Note to all of you out there that had to do the toothpick bridge, long thin strands of pasta do poorly in buckling (unless laminated with elmers) -- we're talking a slenderness ratio here that's through the roof. If you Eisenman-ites out there read too closely...

He and Neukirch plan to look into not only that still-hidden part of the process but also at other aspects of spaghetti breaking. For instance, the researchers can't yet predict exactly where a spaghetti rod rattled by waves will break. In some cases, fractures probably occur where peaks of extra curvature coincide with weaknesses of the rod, perhaps caused by small, preexisting cracks or voids.

The mechanisms of fragmentation uncovered by the pasta investigations "are both astonishing and are examples of how everyday effects still contain a lot of novel physics," Herrmann says..

... you might mistake all this uncertainty for a new machinic force. Watch out Soliton Waves (oh, if only we could link to his 90's El Croquis Essay), here comes snappy spaghetti. Whatever school you're near, look for pasta models in December's Final Juries folks, you heard it here first.