Oreo torque and torsion
A team of MIT scientists – yes, a team – conducted an experiment using more than 1,000 Oreos and a rheometer to test if there is a way to reliably twist the wafers such that some of the cream filling is remaining on both sides.
The rheometer allowed the scientists to examine how the Oreo behaves under different speeds of torsion.
The analysis found that the filling sticks to only one of the wafers about 80 percent of the time,, regardless of the speed of the twist. The slowest twist took five minutes to separate the wafers, while the fastest twisting speed tested was 100 times as fast as a human could possibly twist.
Regardless of the speed, the filling ends up on a single wafer the vast majority of the time.
The researchers also measured the torque required to twist open an Oreo and found it to be similar to the torque required to turn a doorknob. The cream’s failure stress — the force per area required to get the cream to flow — is twice that of cream cheese and peanut butter, and about the same magnitude as mozzarella cheese.
“Judging from the cream’s response to stress, the team classified its texture as ‘mushy,’ rather than brittle, tough, or rubbery.”
Upon reading all of this, I was left with several thoughts:
- I love it when scientists involve themselves in real-world problems.
- I don’t think this represents a real-world problem.
- With all the actual problems facing this world, why is a team of MIT scientists investing even an iota of their time and resources to conduct this experiment?
But here, I thought was the most upsetting part of all:
Do people really twist their Oreos apart before eating them?
Why would you do this?
What’s the point?
Just eat the damn thing the way it’s designed.
Even worse, why would you continue to twist your Oreos apart when it’s clear that the vast majority of the time you fail to achieve the desired result of cream on each wafer?
People really do the craziest things.
