You may imagine that the title of this article is a kind of humor, but in fact, the Oreo biscuit has occupied the headlines of the scientific press after a recent research was published about it in an international scientific journal. The new study provides a scientific breakthrough to answer a question that has puzzled scientists for a long time. Is it possible to divide the filling of Oreo cookies evenly between the chips?
According to a very exciting paper published in the latest issue (April 2022) of the Physics of Fluids, scientific experiments have revealed that even under strictly controlled laboratory conditions, it is virtually impossible to obtain equal amounts. of cream on both halves of the popular biscuit, a result that "confirms that the heavy side of cream is uniformly oriented in most Oreo biscuits."
Oreo cookies revealed
Oreo biscuits are one of the most famous types of biscuits in the world. It is a brand of biscuits produced by the American company “Nabisco”. It consists of a white cream sandwiched between two chocolate biscuits (with 7% cocoa powder). In American popular culture, the word "Oreo" meant that this person is black but inside is white.
Crystal Owens, a doctoral student in mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, tried to get an equal diffrence in two Oreos and had the opportunity to lead researchers in testing the possibility of achieving that result using a regression scale, an instrument that measures torque and viscosity. different materials.
"I was personally driven by a desire to solve a challenge that had baffled me as a child: How to open an Oreo and get cream spread evenly on both sandwiches?" Owens said in a report to Vice.
"I've preferred the taste of cream with Oreo cookies, but if I get a bite of the chips, I find they are too dry for me, and if I dip them in milk, the wafer will fall apart very quickly," she added.
"When I came to MIT, I learned how to use a rheometer in the lab, which twists a liquid sample between parallel discs to measure viscosity. I originally used our rheometer to test a carbon nanotube ink that I was I design it to 3D print flexible electronics, but one day I realized I finally had the tools and knowledge to solve this age-old challenge with Oreo cookies."
An image showing the physical studies of Oreo biscuits (Journal of Physics of Fluids)
Oryometer
According to the study, Owens and her colleagues took a systematic approach to this important question, and invented the Oreometer, a 3D-printed device designed to study Oreo cookies and circular objects of similar dimensions.
The team visually checked the percentage of cream on each sandwich and the researchers recorded the results.
A number of variations were also introduced into the experiment, such as dipping the biscuits in milk, changing the rotational rate of the flowmeter, and testing different Oreo flavors and filling amounts.
But despite their best efforts, the researchers were unable to find a solution to the problem that has bothered Owens for decades.
“The results corroborate what I saw as a child - the cream tends to fall apart and stick to one sandwich, resulting in one semi-naked sandwich and one with almost the most cream in it,” Owens said.
If the cream splits on both wafers, it tends to split in half so that it forms a "half moon" of cream rather than a thin layer on each, so there's no secret to getting cream evenly on both sandwiches if you want to slice it.
"This was surprising to me because I was imagining that if you split an Oreo, you'd get the cream perfectly portioned, but that's not how physics works."
new scientific term
On the other hand, the team's research confirmed the elusive nature of Oreo, and the new study is filled with revelations about this snack and its intriguing properties.
Owens and her colleagues reported, for the first time, that Oreos belong to the so-called 'soft' tissue system.
The researchers also revealed that this study establishes a new term, "Oreology", which is defined as "the study of the flow and breakage of the sandwich cake."
These findings presented another series of challenges to Owens' world view of Oreo cookies, and the researchers also concluded that "the strength of an Oreo chocolate chip deteriorated over time after immersion in milk", and that it suffered a "significant structural loss" within one minute of exposure to milk.
Orimeter device for studying Oreo biscuits and circular objects of similar dimensions (Journal of Physics of Fluids)
Nobel Prize for Scientific Folly
The study of biscuit physics is not new. In 1999, Dr. Len Fisher was awarded the Ig Nobel Prize in physics for his pioneering research on the time required to dip a biscuit in tea. Of course, this study marks an important stage in this field.
It is known that the Ig Nobel Prize, the Nobel Prize for ignorant people, or the Nobel Prize for scientific foolishness, is a prize awarded every year in a funny and comedic atmosphere for scientific research. Winning research is useful science.
As useful as the new study may be to studies of biscuits, there are still many mysteries about this delicious dessert that require an explanation.
Owens hopes her work makes people think about the scientific concepts behind their daily snacks.
"With this apt name for oncology-like science, I hope our study will make more people familiar with the field of urology research," she said.
"There are many questions that we were not able to fully answer in our first study, so we welcome other people to contribute ideas and experiences," she concluded.