Could a dry spaghetti noodle ever be coerced to break into only two pieces? Courtesy of the researchers.
It's nearly impossible to break a dry spaghetti noodle into only two pieces. A new MIT study shows how and why it can be done. If you happen to have a box of spaghetti in your pantry, try this experiment: Pull out a single spaghetti stick and hold it at both ends. Now bend it until it breaks. How many fragments did you make? If the answer is three or more, pull out another stick and try again. Can you break the noodle in two? If not, you're in very good company. The spaghetti challenge has flummoxed even the likes of famed physicist Richard Feynman '39, who once spent a good portion of an evening breaking pasta and looking for a theoretical explanation for why the sticks refused to snap in two.
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