May The Force (of Mayonnaise) Be With You!

Posted by timothy on Tuesday March 30, 2004 @02:24AM from the also-the-force-of-projectile-vomiting dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "A team of chemists at Rice University was working last year on two separate projects: trying to create strong fibers from carbon nanotubes, and testing emulsions of oil and water. And they discovered that a force known as 'negative first normal stress difference' was present in both solutions. The next step was to go to a grocery store and buy a more common emulsion, namely a jar of mayonnaise. And bingo! This force was also at work. They tell us more in this news release, "Bizarre Attractive Force Found in Mayonnaise." Unfortunately, they don't know what to do from their findings. Still, it's fun science. More details and references are available in this overview."

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wow, this explains why it's hard to open the jar! by wisebabo · 2004-03-30 20:36 · Score: 3, Insightful

No really!

If you read the article the negative first normal stress difference says that sliding plates across "-- created forces that tugged the plates together. "

Well, when you twist the lid, isn't that what you're doing? (Sliding it relative to the rest of the jar?)

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If you're conservative when you're young you have no heart... If you're conservative when you're old you have no brain (with apologies to Winston Churchill; but he didn't know Bush!)