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Related: About this forumOn Oreology, the fracture and flow of "milk's favorite cookie"
From the abstract, "Finally, we introduce and validate the design of an open-source, three-dimensionally printed Oreometer powered by rubber bands and coins for encouraging higher precision home studies to contribute new discoveries to this incipient field of study."https://news.mit.edu/2022/oreometer-cream-0419
MIT engineers introduce the Oreometer
Mechanical engineers put an Oreos cream filling through a battery of tests to understand what happens when two wafers are twisted apart.
Jennifer Chu | MIT News Office
Publication Date:April 19, 2022
When you twist open an Oreo cookie to get to the creamy center, youre mimicking a standard test in rheology the study of how a non-Newtonian material flows when twisted, pressed, or otherwise stressed. MIT engineers have now subjected the sandwich cookie to rigorous materials tests to get to the center of a tantalizing question: Why does the cookies cream stick to just one wafer when twisted apart?
Theres the fascinating problem of trying to get the cream to distribute evenly between the two wafers, which turns out to be really hard, says Max Fan, an undergraduate in MITs Department of Mechanical Engineering.
In pursuit of an answer, the team subjected cookies to standard rheology tests in the lab and found that no matter the flavor or amount of stuffing, the cream at the center of an Oreo almost always sticks to one wafer when twisted open. Only for older boxes of cookies does the cream sometimes separate more evenly between both wafers.
The researchers also measured the torque required to twist open an Oreo, and found it to be similar to the torque required to turn a doorknob and about 1/10th whats needed to twist open a bottlecap. The creams failure stress i.e. the force per area required to get the cream to flow, or deform is twice that of cream cheese and peanut butter, and about the same magnitude as mozzarella cheese. Judging from the creams response to stress, the team classifies its texture as mushy, rather than brittle, tough, or rubbery.
So, why does the cookies cream glom to one side rather than splitting evenly between both? The manufacturing process may be to blame.
Mechanical engineers put an Oreos cream filling through a battery of tests to understand what happens when two wafers are twisted apart.
Jennifer Chu | MIT News Office
Publication Date:April 19, 2022
When you twist open an Oreo cookie to get to the creamy center, youre mimicking a standard test in rheology the study of how a non-Newtonian material flows when twisted, pressed, or otherwise stressed. MIT engineers have now subjected the sandwich cookie to rigorous materials tests to get to the center of a tantalizing question: Why does the cookies cream stick to just one wafer when twisted apart?
Theres the fascinating problem of trying to get the cream to distribute evenly between the two wafers, which turns out to be really hard, says Max Fan, an undergraduate in MITs Department of Mechanical Engineering.
In pursuit of an answer, the team subjected cookies to standard rheology tests in the lab and found that no matter the flavor or amount of stuffing, the cream at the center of an Oreo almost always sticks to one wafer when twisted open. Only for older boxes of cookies does the cream sometimes separate more evenly between both wafers.
The researchers also measured the torque required to twist open an Oreo, and found it to be similar to the torque required to turn a doorknob and about 1/10th whats needed to twist open a bottlecap. The creams failure stress i.e. the force per area required to get the cream to flow, or deform is twice that of cream cheese and peanut butter, and about the same magnitude as mozzarella cheese. Judging from the creams response to stress, the team classifies its texture as mushy, rather than brittle, tough, or rubbery.
So, why does the cookies cream glom to one side rather than splitting evenly between both? The manufacturing process may be to blame.
============================================================
https://aip.scitation.org/doi/full/10.1063/5.0085362
On Oreology, the fracture and flow of milk's favorite cookie®
Physics of Fluids 34, 043107 (2022); https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0085362
ABSTRACT
The mechanical experience of consumption (i.e., feel, softness, and texture) of many foods is intrinsic to their enjoyable consumption, one example being the habit of twisting a sandwich cookie to reveal the cream. Scientifically, sandwich cookies present a paradigmatic model of parallel plate rheometry in which a fluid sample, the cream, is held between two parallel plates, the wafers. When the wafers are counter-rotated, the cream deforms, flows, and ultimately fractures, leading to separation of the cookie into two pieces. We introduce Oreology (/ɔriːˈɒlədʒi/), from the Nabisco Oreo for cookie and the Greek rheo logia for flow study, as the study of the flow and fracture of sandwich cookies. Using a laboratory rheometer, we measure failure mechanics of the eponymous Oreo's creme and probe the influence of rotation rate, amount of creme, and flavor on the stressstrain curve and postmortem creme distribution. The results typically show adhesive failure, in which nearly allw (95%) creme remains on one wafer after failure, and we ascribe this to the production process, as we confirm that the creme-heavy side is uniformly oriented within most of the boxes of Oreos. However, cookies in boxes stored under potentially adverse conditions (higher temperature and humidity) show cohesive failure resulting in the creme dividing between wafer halves after failure. Failure mechanics further classify the creme texture as mushy. Finally, we introduce and validate the design of an open-source, three-dimensionally printed Oreometer powered by rubber bands and coins for encouraging higher precision home studies to contribute new discoveries to this incipient field of study.
[...]
Physics of Fluids 34, 043107 (2022); https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0085362
ABSTRACT
The mechanical experience of consumption (i.e., feel, softness, and texture) of many foods is intrinsic to their enjoyable consumption, one example being the habit of twisting a sandwich cookie to reveal the cream. Scientifically, sandwich cookies present a paradigmatic model of parallel plate rheometry in which a fluid sample, the cream, is held between two parallel plates, the wafers. When the wafers are counter-rotated, the cream deforms, flows, and ultimately fractures, leading to separation of the cookie into two pieces. We introduce Oreology (/ɔriːˈɒlədʒi/), from the Nabisco Oreo for cookie and the Greek rheo logia for flow study, as the study of the flow and fracture of sandwich cookies. Using a laboratory rheometer, we measure failure mechanics of the eponymous Oreo's creme and probe the influence of rotation rate, amount of creme, and flavor on the stressstrain curve and postmortem creme distribution. The results typically show adhesive failure, in which nearly allw (95%) creme remains on one wafer after failure, and we ascribe this to the production process, as we confirm that the creme-heavy side is uniformly oriented within most of the boxes of Oreos. However, cookies in boxes stored under potentially adverse conditions (higher temperature and humidity) show cohesive failure resulting in the creme dividing between wafer halves after failure. Failure mechanics further classify the creme texture as mushy. Finally, we introduce and validate the design of an open-source, three-dimensionally printed Oreometer powered by rubber bands and coins for encouraging higher precision home studies to contribute new discoveries to this incipient field of study.
[...]
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On Oreology, the fracture and flow of "milk's favorite cookie" (Original Post)
sl8
Apr 2022
OP
vlyons
(10,252 posts)1. Too much free time
nt
tanyev
(42,550 posts)2. Milk's favorite cookie?
Oreos are ok, but I dont remember ever dunking them in milk. Oatmeal or chocolate chip, yes.
Warpy
(111,245 posts)3. I was going to say that's probably why I'm not fond of them
Milk has been an enemy of mine since before I turned five. And don't suggest the substitutes, I learned to loathe the stuff pretty thoroughly so the substitutes would be wasted on me.
If I dunk, it's into hot tea and shortbread type cookies are the absolute best for that.
murpheeslaw
(110 posts)4. Ignoble Prize contender
But what about the first - the best: the Hydrox???? Oreo cream is crisco and powdered sugar (blech!) Its greasy. Hydrox filling is thinner and almost crisp.