Pancake Physics to Cut Batter Splatter

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Pancake Physics to Cut Batter Splatter

Posted by chrisd on Wednesday March 5, 2003 @08:58PM from the all-hail-science dept.

Anonymous Coward writes "The headline just about says it all on this one. A physics grad student in the UK has come up with the mathematical formula for how to flip a pancake and have it land correctly back in the pan. The BBC has the details."

31 of 298 comments (clear)

Ah-hah! by Gortbusters.org · 2003-03-05 21:02 · Score: 4, Funny

His secret is revealed: The angular velocity of the object equals the square root of Pi, times the gravity divided by the distance the pancake is from the elbow times four - that is how to get the pancake back in the pan.

Seriously, mimicing real life movement in mathematical forumla is a tough one (that's why we don't see any battlemechs walking around, or tons of popular robots in every house hold.

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1. Re:Ah-hah! by Zenjive · 2003-03-05 22:25 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  The angular velocity of the object equals the square root of Pi, times the gravity divided by the distance the pancake is from the elbow times four - that is how to get the pancake back in the pan.
  
  Would that be an African or European swallow?
  
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[licking lips] by Nevrar · 2003-03-05 21:06 · Score: 0, Funny

MmMmm... Pancakes...

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Nevrar
Mine always land in the pan... by Jason1729 · 2003-03-05 21:06 · Score: 0, Funny

But then I use a spatula

Jason
ProfQuotes
In other news by djupedal · 2003-03-05 21:08 · Score: 3, Funny

"A pancake in the UK has come up with the mathematical formula for how to flip a physics grad student and have him land correctly back in the pan. The BBC has the details."
Butter! by Anonymous Coward · 2003-03-05 21:10 · Score: 4, Funny

If you butter both sides, will it land on its edge?

A better question, what if you butter the edge as well?
1. Re:Butter! by $$$exy+Gwen+Araujo · 2003-03-05 21:17 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  A better question, what if you butter the edge as well? It spins indefinately? Seriously, butter some bread and attach it to a cat, then throw it up in the air. Cats always land on their feet, but bread always lands butter side down, so the cat/bread combination will spin round and round indefinately. Have you ever been inside a power plant?
  
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2. Re:Butter! by Ashtead · 2003-03-05 21:54 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Actually, the study of bread falling off table was taking into account the starting position which is on the table and with the buttered side up. Seems the height of the table and the inertial torque of the bread conspire to make it roll somewhere between 1/4 and 3/4 turns, and therefore fall face down more often than not. With subsequent need for cleanup. If the table had been about twice as tall as a standard table (60 in instead of 30 in) the pieces of bread would have time to tumble one full turn and thus fall face up.
  Falling cats are famously able to turn around and land on their feet. Unless the height of the fall is too large, the cat has no problems with that. I forgot the exact conditions of falling cats, but they are able to turn around in a fall in a lot less than the 30 inches down from a table.
  If the two were to be combined and the cat has a piece of bread strapped to it, it is the cat that prevails, being more active, heavier, and having a larger moment of inertia.
  I'd imagine that the same would apply to pancakes, and I have disregarded the risk of the cat eating the food.
  
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  SIGBUS @ NO-07.308
3. Re:Butter! by Anonymous Coward · 2003-03-06 00:59 · Score: 1, Funny
  
  I think the answer will depend on if this is a classical cat or a schroedinger cat.
  The results are really interesting if they are two mad schroedinger cats since they will become entangled. Of course there may be problems with tufts of fur getting in the butter or pancakes.
Apparently it's all in the wrist action... by Boss,+Pointy+Haired · 2003-03-05 21:16 · Score: 4, Funny

So no problem for most geeks then...
Is that.... by Highwayman · 2003-03-05 21:18 · Score: 3, Funny

Is that Hans Blix in the article's photo? I long have expected the UK to be in possession of a proscribed pancake making machine able of launching a pancake in excess of 150km. In other news, Rumsfeld demands accounting for 1.5 tons of missing pancake batter.
Hah! What about the wrist? by the+bluebrain · 2003-03-05 21:19 · Score: 0, Funny

... is what I want to know.
These guys wouldn't know their elbows from their asses, the way it sounds. "It's all in the wrist" is a rule well-known to tennis players, golfers, and come to think of it, other, uh ... sportsmen. Um.

I'll stop my rant there, I think.

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yes, we have no bananas
Actually... by Anonymous Coward · 2003-03-05 21:22 · Score: 5, Funny

I think you meant:

In Heaven, the police are British, the lovers are Italian, the cooks are French, the engineers are German, and it's all organized by the Swiss.

In Hell, the police are German, the lovers are Swiss, the cooks are British, the engineers are French, and it's all organized by the Italians.
Once by Matrix2110 · 2003-03-05 21:35 · Score: 1, Funny

I tried flipping a pancake, Once.

The ensuing mess encouraged me not to try it again. (Nothing ruins the meal more than cleaning up a half-cooked pancake off the floor)

If these guys can come up with some sort of mess free "practice pancake" kit with detailed instructions that can be read without a degree in math. I would be very interested.
Re:BBC doesn't understand it by Anonymous Coward · 2003-03-05 21:38 · Score: 2, Funny

Given that it will not fall back flat unless the flip is 180n degrees, n integral, this is pretty blindingly obvious.

... I would further suggest that n is odd, or your guests will probably not be asking for a second round.
re: story by prell · 2003-03-05 21:38 · Score: 2, Funny

if I ever get another story rejected by slashdot, I'll shoot myself
Re:Pancakes, crepes, flapjack... by Xxanmorph · 2003-03-05 21:39 · Score: 5, Funny

Too much information about other countries! My american brain can't take it!
Re:Amazing Brits... by freddled · 2003-03-05 21:53 · Score: 5, Funny

We are having a rest after inventing democracy (o/s for civilisation), the English language (o/s for culture and arguably thinking), Football (conflict resolution and war emulation) and Cricket (cultural add-on for massively-scalar beer drinking in the park).
ob micro$oft connection by limbop · 2003-03-05 21:56 · Score: 1, Funny

Apparently this guy isn't the only one interested in pancake flipping. Take a look at this paper entitled "Bounds for sorting by prefix reversal" (AKA Pancake flipping problem) co-published by one William H. Gates...
Re:I'm gonna nit pick. by Paradise+Pete · 2003-03-05 22:45 · Score: 1, Funny

Once you've got to a couple of hundred digits, consider saying in your .sig how many digits you know
So far I'm up to three.
Okaaaaaay, by DongleFondle · 2003-03-05 22:52 · Score: 5, Funny

I do believe it is time that someone introduced Europe to the concept of the 'spatula'. We sort a solved this whole pancakes on the floor dilehma a looooooooong time ago . . .
You know what? While we're at it, let's give China forks and spoons.
1. Re:Okaaaaaay, by kurosawdust · 2003-03-06 01:00 · Score: 1, Funny
  
  You know what? While we're at it, let's give China forks and spoons. Perhaps we can work out an international trade agreement where they give us the metric system in return...
This needs more salt errr...variables by Aropax20 · 2003-03-05 22:53 · Score: 1, Funny

Did these guys code up a VirtualFrypan (better trademark that before Apple can) and screw around with a few simple variables or something?
I mean, don't you have to factor in the surface of the frypan? What about teflon versus some tatty old iron pan? Did they butter or oil it first and if so, how much?
What about the consistency of the batter and the right moment at which to flip it? I'm no Pancake Scientist but I bet a realllllly runny pancake is more likely to splatter the ceiling than one with the fluid dynamics of week-old oatmeal
A "conundrum that has taxed pancake flippers since the dawn" (dawn of time, or yesterday morning?) needs a rigid set of controls in place!
Maybe they need to determine the perfect recipe before firing up that stove?
oh well, back to the chopping board...
What my parents said is true... by More+Karma+Than+God · 2003-03-05 23:04 · Score: 1, Funny

...You really do need to use math every day.

Mmmmmm......

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Re:I'm gonna nit pick. by fyonn · 2003-03-05 23:40 · Score: 4, Funny

Are you a geek? Be proud of it. Prove it. Memorize 1000 digits of pi!

I can remember *all* of the digits to pi

now the order.. thats a different matter...

dave
Re: In England we're real tossers by WolfWithoutAClause · 2003-03-06 01:56 · Score: 3, Funny

I'll be very impressed if they invent a machine which can repeatably toss pancakes. There are an awful lot of variables, which he seems to ignore. But then he is a physicist, not an engineer. ;-)
Yeah, but that means he will be more accurate by roughly 5% because he won't be assuming that pi is 'nearly' 3 ;-)

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-WolfWithoutAClause
"Gravity is only a theory, not a fact!"
Now by HotSIag · 2003-03-06 02:50 · Score: 1, Funny

I must patent this, as I've been doing it like that for years. Though my method also involves a webcam, a bowtie and some body lotion.
Re:Amazing Americans... by Pastor+Fluff · 2003-03-06 03:43 · Score: 2, Funny

So we have the brits to blame for "Can you hear me now?"

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Re:Amazing Brits... by Greedo · 2003-03-06 05:35 · Score: 3, Funny

Only on Slashdot can a post on linguistic differences about the term "pancakes" result in an anti-Microsoft reply within two posts.

There should be a Six Degrees of Slashdot test: how many posts does it take to turn a discussion into one about operating systems, beowulf clusters, or the RIAA.

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Tuus crepidae innexilis sunt.
Re:This is what Brits have to say about it by babbage · 2003-03-06 06:55 · Score: 2, Funny

So let me get this straight -- while the US Gulf Coast from Mobile through New Orleans and west is celebrating the drunken debauchery of Mardi Gras, and while Rio de Janerio is celebrating the even more wild debauchery of Carnival ...the English are observing "let's eat pancakes day"? How dreadfully boring.
No wonder our ancestors emigrated :-)

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Re:Pancakes, crepes, flapjack... by beelz · 2003-03-06 08:20 · Score: 2, Funny

no, no, no... the REAL quote follows:

"People will accept your ideas much more readily if you tell them that Benjamin Franklin said it first" - Benjamin Franklin