Spaghetti problem cracked
Take a piece of dry spaghetti from a packet. Bend it until it breaks and you will find that it is almost impossible to make it snap into exactly two pieces. Instead, the spaghetti always seems to shatter into three or more pieces.
​
This has baffled scientists and mathematicians for decades and nobody truly understood the reasons until recently.
​
It appears the secret is to twist the stick before you bend it. By applying a twist of at least 250 degrees, you should be able to break the stick into exactly two pieces.
It is difficult to break a piece of spaghetti into two pieces
Be warned, twisting a stick of spaghetti by 250 degrees is no mean feat. The researchers used specialised twisting equipment to achieve this.
​
The reason that a twist is needed appears to be that it counteracts waves that build up in the spaghetti which lead to additional breaks occurring.
​
This discovery may seem trivial, but many mathematical insights that were thought to be pointless have proven to have important applications further down the line.
​
Indeed, the results may help scientists to understand how cracks propagate through other cylindrical objects, helping to prevent catastrophic fractures developing.