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Have you ever wondered why crinkle cut chips are so much
better than thin chips? A few reasons are they are crisper
because the corrugation gives more structure to the chip
which in turns makes it crunch louder, to hold this
structure the chip needs to be thicker which means it is
more chunky
and adds even more to the crunch. However
the main reason that crinkle cut are better is because they
have a larger surface area to size ratio than flat chips, this
means that a larger amount of flavour can be held in a chip
that is crinkle cut than an ordinary flat chip of the same
size.
Companies advertise that their chip has the biggest flavour
hit when really the amount of flavour is limited by the
surface area of the chip itself and no matter how many
extra sachets of powdery stuff you put in it won't make
much difference.
Chip scientists need to look to nature for inspiration when
designing the perfect chip. The lung is a perfect example
I'm not sure of the particulars but I remember that it has a
huge amount of surface area for its size because of the
millions and millions of tiny alveoli (air sacs) and I was
thinking that by using micro technology a chip could be
made with millions of tiny tunnels though it, or maybe a
whole potato could be hollowed out with millions of tunnels
and air pockets like a lung. A small hole could be made in
the top and a micro robot based on a termite but a million
times smaller could make an intricate network of tunnels
and air pockets inside leaving the outside completely intact.
After flavour was injected in it would be fried and ready
to eat.
I expect nearly 2/3 of the potato to be removed in this
hollowing out process, the waste can be used to make
pringles.
From the outside it looks like a big round chip but once you
bite into it you are hit by the intense flavour that only a
chip with ultimate surface area to size ratio can provide.
Mr. Potato Head vs. a Flocking Road Cone
http://moviemaniac1...ToyStory/potato.gif [thumbwax, Oct 05 2004]
[link]
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Mmmh, lung chips and robot bugs. |
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It's definitely got all the essentials. (+) |
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The robotic bugs are programmed so that they come out
of the chips, each chip could be x rayed on the way to
the friar to make sure the little tykes had made it out
safely and these wont make it into potato feilds because
they are robots and arn't living things they can only work
within the chip facroty where they can be recharged.
The robots are tiny tiny little things anyway and if you
swallowed one of them there would be no effect at all, if
you bit one it would probably smash, think of somthing
about the with of a human hair. |
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Come *on*, surely you can do this without magic robot bugs which are really just a cop-out since you can make *anything* with magic robot bugs. |
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What makes you think that the amount of flavour is limited the surface area? I would think that the surface area of the tongue would be the limiting factor. Why not just make the flavour of the powdery stuff more intense? This has been baked (fried, actually). |
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Increased surface area would, however, change the texture of the chip. Acheiving this using magic robot bugs would be uneconomical. Why not grind potatoes into fragments, or flakes, then reform them with an edible binder that, when fried, assumes the shape of complex fractal geometry? |
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Cut thinner, more deeply ruffled chips. Ruffle the ruffles. Then expose the cut chips to a fine spray to pit the surface. |
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Such a chip will disappear when you fry it, but you'll have advanced the field. |
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The robot bugs were just an example of a way in wich the
surface area of the chip could be increased, the idea
itself was chips with increased surface area so that more
flavor can be carried by each individual chip. |
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Enter "Mobius Chips". The chip that keeps on giving. Mobius Chips have no beginning or end, and a nice hoopy little shape to facilitate scooping up your favorite dips. Your tongue may be so confused by the seemingly endless surface area that it wouldn't matter what the chip tasted like. |
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