Chocolate Obsession Leads to Physics Discovery

[Wonk]

Fri 13 February, 2004 23:11

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Princeton physicist Paul Chaikin's passion for M&M candies was so well known that his students played a sweet practical joke on him by leaving a 55-gallon drum of the candies in his office.

Little did they know that their prank would lead to a physics breakthrough.

The barrel full of the oblate little candies made Chaikin think about how well they packed in. A series of studies have shown they pack more tightly than perfect spheres -- something that surprises many physicists and Chaikin himself.

(snip)

Writing in Friday's issue of the journal Science, they said they found that oblate spheroids -- such as plain M&Ms -- pack surprisingly more densely than regular spheres when poured randomly and shaken.

more...
http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=scienceNews&storyID=4358356§ion=news

[burrowowl]

1. Good old serendipity! eom

[Q3JR4]

2. Don't they say that

the words that herald a new discovery aren't "Eureka!" but "that's strange...." ?

[Dudley_DUright]

3. Paul Chaikin is pretty famous

in condensed matter physics circles for his creative ideas. Here is is homepage at Princeton if you want to see what else he is interested in:

http://pupgg.princeton.edu/www/jh/research/Chaikin_paul.htmlx