M&M's Used To Test Physics

[matcom]

<snip>

PRINCETON BOROUGH, N.J. -- Princeton University researchers have been using tasty treats to answer ages-old fundamental questions of physics and mathematics.

A team led by physicist Paul Chaikin and chemist Salvatore Torquato has been utilizing M&Ms -- and not to find out whether they melt in your mouth, not in your hands.

The question, instead, has been how particles of flattened spheres -- in this case, milk chocolate M&Ms -- settle when poured randomly into a container. Conducting MRI scans on globular flasks filled with thousands of M&Ms was a way to find that out.

Chaikin and Torquato's team found that the flattened spheres pack more densely than randomly poured spherical particles.

"It's a very amusing result," Princeton physicist Philip Anderson, a 1977 Nobel Prize winner, told The Times of Trenton. "It's also quite surprising and maybe a little bit profound."

http://www.boston.com/news/odd/articles/2004/02/24/nj_researchers_use_mms_to_test_physics/

[baldguy]

1. And still - no cure for cancer.

Amazing, isn't it?

[trotsky]

2. You never know.

A surprising number of discoveries - probably most of them - were made when someone said, "Hmm, that's weird..." and played around for a bit.

[bleedingheart]

3. I understand what you are saying but cancer research isn't

what these people are studying.

Hell we are going to spend oodles to go to Mars and there are kids living in cars with their parents...

[papau]

4. A repeat of the Aussie discovery?

seems this past our way in last month or so.

[Catshrink]

5. How about one on Twinkies?

check this out:

www.trinkiesproject.com

Many experiments on Twinkies, including a test for intelligence.