Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Spaghetti Cleaver

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Some like their spaghetti shorter than comes in the standard package. But when an uncooked spaghetti strand is broken in half prior to cooking, the shape of the exposed breakage surface is not a perfect plane exactly perpendicular to the strand axis, as it would ideally be. This is immensely irritating to those who are immensely irritated by it. Squeak-O-Matic, Inc has introduced a new product to solve this pressing problem - the Spaghetti Cleaver.

The Spaghetti Cleaver is modeled on the already in wide use Optical Fiber Cleaver, a video demo of which is shown in the link. From this link we also learn: "A fiber cleave is initiated by lightly scratching the surface of the fiber. When the fiber is thereafter pulled or bent, a crack will originate at the scratch and propagate radially across the width of the fiber. This produces a nearly flat cleave. The stress field within the fiber created by tension or bending determines the speed at which sound will propagate. If the crack exceeds this speed, the crack will suddenly change direction by almost 90°. This results in an excess of material on one fiber and a shortage on the other fiber (called a hackle). So in order to produce a nearly flat cleave of a fiber, the crack speed must propagate slower than the speed of sound in the fiber. This rule should hold regardless of fiber material. Just be certain that you know the speed of sound in the fiber."

Ah-ha! We see that this will work for spaghetti, if we know the speed of sound in a spaghetti strand and compensate accordingly.

sqeaketh the wheel, Oct 13 2012

Fiber Cleaving Tool demo http://www.fiberopt...nd-where-to-get-it/
[sqeaketh the wheel, Oct 13 2012]

Everything you ever wanted to know about spaghetti snapping, http://www.math.psu...onte/spaghetti.html
but were afraid to ask. [2 fries shy of a happy meal, Oct 13 2012]

Pasta by Design http://www.thamesan...n.com/9780500515808
More related to the link above, but here is a book containing the mathematical functions to produce graphs with pasta shapes. There's a 'look inside' button, but if that doesn't work, try www.pastabydesign.net. [TomP, Oct 13 2012]

yi gen mian http://www.sxnu.edu.cn/english/food.html
25 meters long [pocmloc, Oct 13 2012]

[link]






       I fear that the speed of sound in spaghetti depends somewhat on how cooked it is.
pocmloc, Oct 13 2012
  

       We are talking pre-cooked.
sqeaketh the wheel, Oct 13 2012
  

       The angle of the crack will also depend on the homogeneity of the pasta. However, the drying process leads to non-uniform properties, measured radially.   

       The only reliable method is the Spaghetti Lathe, whereinby a single spaghettus is spun at high speed as a diamond-tipped cutting tool is brought to bear.
MaxwellBuchanan, Oct 13 2012
  

       If we are prepared to accept wastage, then we could dispense with fancy cutters and instead just snap willy nilly and then insert the spagettulums into a perpendicular grinder, which will polish their jaggedy ends into perfectly flat and perpendicular faces.
pocmloc, Oct 13 2012
  

       The lathe swarf or grinding dust could be reprocessed to yield additional pasta.
MaxwellBuchanan, Oct 13 2012
  

       If you lubricated the cutter just enough, do you think the swarf would curl in a single strand like a micro-spaget?
pocmloc, Oct 13 2012
  

       I think it unlikely. But then again there are plenty of unlikely things that happen.   

       In fact, there are many many many more unlikely things than likely ones. And the number of _very_ unlikely things is greater still. Therefore, taking into account probability densities, unlikely things must happen much more often than likely ones, making it unlikely that something likely is likely to happen.
MaxwellBuchanan, Oct 13 2012
  

       What [MB] said. Or then again, perhaps not.   

       The idea is fine as far as it goes, but we are disappointed that the clearly superior mechanism of directed-force explosive charges has somehow been omitted.
8th of 7, Oct 13 2012
  

       I believe that the det-cord pasta developed by the Italian resistance more than compensates.   

       Moreover, if pasta and antipasti are brought together, the explosion is more than adequately sufficient for most purposes.
MaxwellBuchanan, Oct 13 2012
  
      
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