02/12/2015
The physics of popcorn..,,
It’s one of the most dramatic transformations in science, and it happens in your microwave.Most popcorn lovers take for granted that a simple kernel of corn can metamorphose into a fluffy treat. But to a pair of French researchers, the popping of corn presents a powerful demonstration of how the laws of physics apply to everything — even a snack food.“This phenomenon contains interesting physics from different fields: thermodynamics, biomechanics and acoustics,” said aeronautical engineer Emmanuel Virot and physicist Alexandre Ponomarenko, the authors of a study published Tuesday in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.Watch popcorn pop in slow motion.A slow-motion video shows the jump and somersault of a popping piece of popcorn.See more videosUntil now, most research on popcorn has been focused on practical questions. Food chemists determined that the optimum moisture content of a kernel is 13.5% to 14% of its total weight. Food engineers concluded that the ideal shape for an unpopped kernel is a sphere. Plant breeders have reduced the rate of unpopped kernels by 75% since the 1950s.Virot and Ponomarenko aren’t interested in improving popcorn. They simply wanted to understand the physical origins of some of its most distinctive traits, like the forces that make kernels jump and the source of the iconic pop-pop-pop sound.Their investigations were inspired by colleagues in the hydrodynamics laboratory at Ecole Polytechnique in Palaiseau, where Virot is working on his doctorate degree and Ponomarenko got his in 2012. (Ponomarenko is now doing a postdoctoral fellowship at a French government agency for agronomical research.) Their fellow scientists were using a high-speed camera to take 2,900 pictures per second of physical phenomena, like a drop landing on the surface of water.Virot and Ponomarenko trained their high-speed camera on plants. Before long, they had fixated on popcorn.Known scientifically as Zea mays everta, popcorn is the only type of corn that pops. Its kernels are more spherical than other corn kernels, and its pericarp — the hull that surrounds the seed — is a little thicker. The starch inside the seed is embedded in a protein matrix called the endosperm, said Devin Rose, a food scientist who studies grains at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.When the kernel is heated above 100 degrees Celsius, the water inside turns to steam. That water v***r forces its way into the hard endosperm, creating a molten mass.“It’s like bread dough, or …
