From: scerir (scerir@libero.it)
Date: Tue Mar 12 2002 - 14:21:03 MST
Using high tech experiments, the research team
led by Professor Colin Humphreys - a renowned
expert in material science - has been able to
calculate the kinetic energy, centrifugal force
and co-efficient of friction for various kinds
of pasta - and to come up with the best way of
eating pasta.
Together with fellow researchers from the Cambridge
University's Department of Materials Science and
Metallurgy - Nikhil Sharma, Alex Bright and Cornelia
Schonjahn - the team has also studied average
distribution patterns of pasta sauce under
various common dining conditions by examining
the patterns left on white tablecloths.
Detailed studies have revealed that, under laboratory
conditions, droplets of pasta sauce can travel as far
as four feet in all directions during the course of
an average meal.
The risk of sauce splatter is at its greatest just as
the last eleven centimetres of Spaghetti are being
rolled onto the fork. A final reckless flick of the wrist
can easily accelerate the speed of the Spaghetti tip to
over nine feet per second, producing enough centrifugal
force to enable the pasta sauce to achieve escape
velocity with deadly consequences.
Initial results also suggest that the spread and
direction taken by the sauce is affected by the
shape of the pasta. For instance, long thin, pasta
shapes such as spaghetti and Linguine have the potential
to produce the greatest spread of sauce, because they
have a high surface area to volume ratio, enabling each
strand to travel onto the fork at a comparatively high
terminal velocity. [May I add that Bucatini are much
more dangerous than Linguine? s.]
Shorter, broader pasta ribbons such as Tagliatelle and
Pappardelle have a lower splatter risk factor because
the same angular speed of the rotating fork results in
lower velocities of sauce droplets since the distance
between the centre of rotation (the fork) and a sauce
droplet is smaller. Safest pastas of all are the huge
variety of small, compact shapes such as penne, pasta
shells, Sacchetini [? Cambridge speciality ?] and
Tricolour Trompetti [???] which produce only a
comparatively small splatter pattern because
many contain fillings and are often eaten whole.
So distinct are the differences in splatter patterns
between pastas that, with further study, it may be
even be possible to predict which pasta was being eaten,
merely by looking at the splatter pattern produced.
The viscosity of each pasta sauce is also a major
contributor to splatter pattern. Thick Italian
cheese sauces as well as cream-based sauces such
as wild mushroom and Carbonara sauce have high
levels of viscosity. This means that a larger force
is required to separate sauce droplets, hence the
likelihood of droplet separation is decreased for
high viscosity sauces and these will be less spatter.
Lighter tomato-based sauces, such as Bolognese sauce,
Tomato, Parmesan and Dill, or Tomato and Tuna sauce,
however, have low viscosity levels, and easily shaken
free - thereby explaining one of the greatest mysteries
of eating pastas: why are the splatter marks always red?
[May I add those Bucatini alla Amatriciana, Tomato &
Bacon sauce, really shooting killers]
http://www.pastafresco.com/splat/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Nov 02 2002 - 09:12:57 MST