Do M & M have their place in Science ;)

[Mathieu]

Chocolates aid physics discovery

February 16, 2004

Princeton physicist Paul Chaikin's passion for M&M's was so well known that his students played a sweet practical joke on him by leaving a 250-litre drum of the little chocolates in his office.

Little did the American university students know that their prank would lead to a physics breakthrough.

The barrel full of plain M&M's made Professor Chaikin think about how well they packed in. A series of studies have shown they pack more tightly than perfect spheres. That surprises many physicists and Professor Chaikin. "It is a startling and wonderful result," Sidney Nagel, a physicist at the University of Chicago, said.

"One doesn't normally stop to think about this. If you did, you might have guessed what would happen, but you'd have guessed wrongly."

The issue of how particles pack together has intrigued scientists for centuries and has implications for fields such as the design of high-density ceramic materials for use in aerospace or other industries.

Professor Chaikin and his colleague, chemist Salvatore Torquato, used the M&M's to investigate the physical and mathematical principles involved when particles are poured randomly into a vessel.

Writing in Friday's issue of the journal Science, they said they found that oblate spheroids such as plain M&M's pack surprisingly more densely than regular spheres when poured randomly and shaken.

When poured in, they said, spheres occupy about 64 per cent of the space in a container. M&M's manage to pack in at a density of about 68 per cent.

- Reuters


link