What do these three things have in common, besides being really random? They are all subjects of serious, dedicated scientific research, and that makes me so, so, so happy. :D Every now and then, I chance upon an article that makes me stop and think: "There is someone in the world who studies that for a living!?"
The tolerance of science to any and all possible research is apparent in practically all fields. In fact, these three are even ordered in terms of the relevant scientific discipline. What's that you say? Food, Toys, and Biology don't seem ordered at all? Food and Toys aren't even really scientific fields? Sorry, I what I meant was Chemistry, Physics, and Mathematics.
Frozen pasta is a really complicated process, when you think about it. Trying to achieve, after freezing, thawing, and eating, the same shape, texture, and flavor as regular pasta is quite a feat. Freezing causes a frost which, upon melting, can soak the pasta and dilute the sauce. Moreover, the coating of lipids (oil) on the pasta apparently modulates chemical changes that can result in altered pasta rigidity and sauce retention! Wow. Serious business! (In fact, pasta sauce research goes back a while. In the 1980s, Howard Moskowitz revolutionized the food industry, beginning with his research with Prego.)
Foamy bubbles may seem chaotic, but in fact they follow very specific scientific rules governed by physics. Joseph Plateau formulated laws that describe the typical formation of foams. Bubbles that do not satisfy these laws are unstable, and they either quickly change to fit these laws or simply pop.
1) Soap films are smooth surfaces, and the average curvature is constant on any point on a single soap film.
2) Soap films meet in 3's along an edge at angles of 120 degrees (inverse cos of -1/2).
3) Edges meet in 4's at a vertex at angles of ~109.5 degrees (inverse cos of -1/3) .
Foams are so organized! :)
Turtles usually fall within the biological domain, but this study of how awkward turtles (turtles on their backs) are able to right themselves--using mathematics! In summary, turtle shells fall somewhere on a scale between flat and tall. Flat-shelled turtles are usually flat because they live most of their lives in the water and need to be hydrodynamic. Flat shells have 2 stable equilibrium points (the back and the bottom), and so if such a turtle is on its back, it is difficult to right itself by just wobbling, because the back is stable. Interestingly, aquatic turtles usually have an abnormally long neck, and this allows them to reach the ground with their head to push off. Medium turtles usually have stable equilibria on the sides of their shells, but these are less stable than the back of a flat turtle, so they can usually get around this issue by wobbling their head and feet.
The tall turtles (the roundest) are special, because they have only 1 stable equilibrium point, which is on the bottom-that is, on their feet. Any other point on their shell is unstable, so they need very little wobbling to right themselves. This may sound cool as is, but the really cool thing is that mathematicians are very interested in 3D objects with just 1 stable equilibrium point, to the point that this class of objects has a name: monostatic. The coolest thing about the fact that these turtle shells are practically monostatic is that monostatic objects are almost non-existent in nature--one study by Domokos included a systematic study of thousands of pebbles, and none of them were monostatic. So this property really is very special. Yay turtles! :) And come on, honestly. How awesome is it that there are not only scientists working hours and hours seeing how stable pebbles are one by one but also scientists that spend their hard working hours on awkward flipped turtles!?!?!? :D
The tolerance of science to any and all possible research is apparent in practically all fields. In fact, these three are even ordered in terms of the relevant scientific discipline. What's that you say? Food, Toys, and Biology don't seem ordered at all? Food and Toys aren't even really scientific fields? Sorry, I what I meant was Chemistry, Physics, and Mathematics.
Frozen pasta is a really complicated process, when you think about it. Trying to achieve, after freezing, thawing, and eating, the same shape, texture, and flavor as regular pasta is quite a feat. Freezing causes a frost which, upon melting, can soak the pasta and dilute the sauce. Moreover, the coating of lipids (oil) on the pasta apparently modulates chemical changes that can result in altered pasta rigidity and sauce retention! Wow. Serious business! (In fact, pasta sauce research goes back a while. In the 1980s, Howard Moskowitz revolutionized the food industry, beginning with his research with Prego.)
Foamy bubbles may seem chaotic, but in fact they follow very specific scientific rules governed by physics. Joseph Plateau formulated laws that describe the typical formation of foams. Bubbles that do not satisfy these laws are unstable, and they either quickly change to fit these laws or simply pop.
1) Soap films are smooth surfaces, and the average curvature is constant on any point on a single soap film.
2) Soap films meet in 3's along an edge at angles of 120 degrees (inverse cos of -1/2).
3) Edges meet in 4's at a vertex at angles of ~109.5 degrees (inverse cos of -1/3) .
Foams are so organized! :)
Turtles usually fall within the biological domain, but this study of how awkward turtles (turtles on their backs) are able to right themselves--using mathematics! In summary, turtle shells fall somewhere on a scale between flat and tall. Flat-shelled turtles are usually flat because they live most of their lives in the water and need to be hydrodynamic. Flat shells have 2 stable equilibrium points (the back and the bottom), and so if such a turtle is on its back, it is difficult to right itself by just wobbling, because the back is stable. Interestingly, aquatic turtles usually have an abnormally long neck, and this allows them to reach the ground with their head to push off. Medium turtles usually have stable equilibria on the sides of their shells, but these are less stable than the back of a flat turtle, so they can usually get around this issue by wobbling their head and feet.
The tall turtles (the roundest) are special, because they have only 1 stable equilibrium point, which is on the bottom-that is, on their feet. Any other point on their shell is unstable, so they need very little wobbling to right themselves. This may sound cool as is, but the really cool thing is that mathematicians are very interested in 3D objects with just 1 stable equilibrium point, to the point that this class of objects has a name: monostatic. The coolest thing about the fact that these turtle shells are practically monostatic is that monostatic objects are almost non-existent in nature--one study by Domokos included a systematic study of thousands of pebbles, and none of them were monostatic. So this property really is very special. Yay turtles! :) And come on, honestly. How awesome is it that there are not only scientists working hours and hours seeing how stable pebbles are one by one but also scientists that spend their hard working hours on awkward flipped turtles!?!?!? :D
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