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Pancake Physics to Cut Batter Splatter

Posted by chrisd on 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."

20 of 298 comments (clear)

  1. Ah-hah! by Gortbusters.org · · 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.

    --
    --------
    Free your mind.
    1. Re:Ah-hah! by Zenjive · · 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?

      --


      A vacuum is a hell of a lot better than some of the stuff that nature replaces it with. - Tennessee Williams
  2. In other news by djupedal · · 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."

  3. Butter! by Anonymous Coward · · 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 · · 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?

      --

      I'm a girl too! See naked chicks in my journal!
    2. Re:Butter! by Ashtead · · 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
  4. Apparently it's all in the wrist action... by Boss,+Pointy+Haired · · Score: 4, Funny

    So no problem for most geeks then...

  5. Is that.... by Highwayman · · 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.

  6. Actually... by Anonymous Coward · · 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.

  7. Re:BBC doesn't understand it by Anonymous Coward · · 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.

  8. re: story by prell · · Score: 2, Funny

    if I ever get another story rejected by slashdot, I'll shoot myself

  9. Re:Pancakes, crepes, flapjack... by Xxanmorph · · Score: 5, Funny

    Too much information about other countries! My american brain can't take it!

  10. Re:Amazing Brits... by freddled · · 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).

  11. Okaaaaaay, by DongleFondle · · 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.

  12. Re:I'm gonna nit pick. by fyonn · · 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

  13. Re: In England we're real tossers by WolfWithoutAClause · · 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 ;-)

    --

    -WolfWithoutAClause

    "Gravity is only a theory, not a fact!"
  14. Re:Amazing Americans... by Pastor+Fluff · · Score: 2, Funny

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

    --
    Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble... can't we just go to Starbuck's for coffee?
  15. Re:Amazing Brits... by Greedo · · 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.

    --
    Tuus crepidae innexilis sunt.
  16. Re:This is what Brits have to say about it by babbage · · 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 :-)

    --
    DO NOT LEAVE IT IS NOT REAL
  17. Re:Pancakes, crepes, flapjack... by beelz · · 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