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68 replies

sudoreply
lemmy.today

Okay, I'll bite. Tell me more about how they did it.

15
ChicoSuavereply
lemmy.world

The math is so complex that research into Pringles with ridges was considered a national secret and it was classified. DARPA was rumored to have provided partial funding.

36

Like Velcro and GPS, Pringle research came straight out of the US military-industrial complex, as a byproduct of the flying saucer research conducted at Area 51.

1
Nfamwapreply
lemmy.world

It took 3 seconds, and it was AI what figured it all out.

-12
lemm.ee

Lol, you're both wrong. AI absolutely can assist, and sometimes be the main part in finding patterns/discoveries, but in the case of the hyperbolic plane, it was created by humans.

2

AI absolutely can assist, and sometimes be the main part in finding patterns/discoveries

Exactly. The figuring out part is a human interpretation of the finding. No machine learning model of the current tech can reliably tell you if it found something new.

4
lemm.ee

With the stuff about 'super computers', this seems more like a shitpost than a science meme.

49
FuglyDuckreply
lemmy.world

I mean, you can just google "pringles super computers" They did use a supercomputer in modeling the thing, most articles are useless cuz they're not going to go into details about how or why.

or here's a CNN article about it. the blurb is just

"Pringles potato chips are designed using [supercomputing] capabilities -- to assess their aerodynamic features so that on the manufacturing line they don't go flying off the line," said Dave Turek, vice president of deep computing at IBM. Personally, though, you're missing out on this gem

Keep in mind, pringles were around since 1968, apparently. modeling and simulating dynamic airflow was probably barely in it's infancy. (and even to day, computational fluid dynamics is some exceedingly hard math to rock)

7

Thanks for the reply! Yes sure and I did that but was a bit irked that the link you posted as a source for information regarding the supercomputing was (sorry) useless.

Anyways thanks for caring :)

Cheers

1
lemmy.world

Completely leaves out that you can use two of them to make yourself look like a duck

47
Belgdorereply
lemm.ee

ENIAC was built in 1945. And Cray was building supercomputers in the 60s

3

I understand that there were “supercomputers” for the day, but I don’t think they called them that. They were just computers. I want to know exactly which one was used to design a reconstituted potato chip.

5
sopuli.xyz

Somehow they also designed them so the tube goes stale roughly 2 minutes after opening it. Also the lovely texture reminiscent of sawdust. Truly a marvel of engineering.

35

I don't think you're supposed to eat the tube, shouldn't matter that it goes stale.

73

"Once you pop you can't stop" is actually a warning about this

5
lemmy.ml

Personally, it always decreased satisfaction that it breaks unpredictably, because I'd get crumbs everywhere. In particular, the shape also hinders putting them far enough into your mouth to catch the crumbs.
Definitely prefer chips which are just sliced potatoes. Them being a naturally grown structure makes them unpredictable enough for my taste.

31

I really thought everyone was eating them entirely and in stacks of 5 ...

14

Also abot 10-15% of thr chips crumble at the bottom to cushion the rest of the pringles

15

This meme is wrong and likely based on a Reddit post that is itself wrong.

“TIL that in the '50s P&G used a supercomputer for designing Pringles…”

The only source I found referencing pringles association with a supercomputer was a 2007 article with this sentence:

Pringles potato chips are designed using [supercomputing] capabilities -- to assess their aerodynamic features so that on the manufacturing line they don't go flying off the line," said Dave Turek, vice president of deep computing at IBM.)

Pringle’s didn’t exist until 1968. Why would they waste a decade’s worth of supercomputing time (per the Reddit post that they were designed in the “‘50s using a supercomputer”) to design a potato chip?

It does not state that the chips were designed in ‘68 with a supercomputer. It directly states that “today’s supercomputers”…”are creating potato chips”, so their current design was done that way for the purposes of expedited manufacturing processes.

The Reddit posts even links to the article stating that the reference for supercomputer usage in Pringle’s design is modern.

12

I developed it. I did not invent it. That was done by a German gentlemen whose name I've forgotten for years. I developed the machine that cooks them. He had invented the basic idea, how to make the potato dough, pressing it between two forms, more or less as in a wrap-around, immersing them in hot cooking oil, and so forth and so on. And we were then called in, I was in the engineering development division, and asked to develop mass production equipment to make these chips. And we divided the task into the dough making/dough rolling portion, which was done by Len Hooper, and the cooking portion, which was done by me, and then the pickoff and salting portion, which was done by someone else, and then the can filling/can sealing portion which was done by a man who was almost driven insane by the program. Because he would develop a machine, and he would have it almost ready to go, and they would say "Oh, instead of 300 cans a minute, make it 500 cans a minute." And so he would have to throw out a bunch of stuff, and develop the new machine, and when he got that one about ready, they'd say "make it 700 cans a minute." And they almost put him in a mental hospital. He took his job very seriously and he just about flipped out.

So no mention of a supercomputer in this invention story.

4

The Supermarine Spitfire.
The London Metro map design.
The Pringles potato chip.

10
lemmus.org

I remember reading somewhere that they also deliberately put different amounts of flavorant on each side of the chip so that you can choose to have more or less flavor intensity based on which side you place against your tongue.

7
lemmy.world

If by deliberate you mean the sprayers that spray all the artificial flavors, liquefied added nutrients, and related shit are on top of the "chip" as it moves down a conveyor, then sure I guess it's deliberate.

3

lol, well it was Pringles propaganda, so I'm sure they were trying to make themselves look like they spared no expense "engineering" their snack food. 😆

1

Which sucks because right way up it fits perfectly around your tongue so it's very easy to eat. But if you want the flavor, you gotta flip it over and it's harder to completely cover it with your mouth, resulting in crumbs flying everywhere.

1
lemy.lol

I had read that they create downforce so they stay put on a conveyor

7

That actually makes way more sense why a supercomputer was involved. (Keeping in mind, our phones are likely more powerful than what they are talking about)

Edit: Oh, it's worse than I thought. The CRAY-1 supercomputer is 4.5x slower than a Raspberry Pi.

17
lemmy.ml

They should be smaller though, so they fit in one piece into the mouth withouth hurting yourself.

6
Thorry84reply
feddit.nl

Huh? I can very easily fit an entire Pringle in my mouth. And I don't think I have that big of a mouth actually. They also don't have any sharp corners or break into sharp pieces, so I can eat it without worrying about cutting the inside of my mouth.

I don't really like what this says about me.

11
dmention7reply
lemm.ee

> They also don't have any sharp corners or break into sharp pieces,

This man has never been within 10 meters of a IRL pringle.

3
Thorry84reply
feddit.nl

You can't tell me what to do, you're not even my real dad! Nom nom nom

1

Bro. You’re supposed to use the can and a pencils to make a directional antenna to borrow your neighbors WiFi.

1
metaStaticreply
kbin.earth

I still have a 200g original tube, they're almost 100g now, I would easily believe someone could fit the whole damn tube in their mouth now

2
sopuli.xyz

self-centering [...] easy to stack up

What is this supposed to mean?

-1

I can't really think of a better example, but well, if you stack half-cylinders like these:
...they can't be off-center in the direction that they're rounded, because gravity + their shape pulls them towards the center.

And well, this saddle shape is rounded in two directions, so it pulls towards the center in both directions.

It's also better than a parabolic/lens shape, because while that can't either move sideways, it doesn't counteract angular movement, so the stack would still bend and fall.

4

But they couldn't make them taste good. Just vut some potatoes you dorks.

-1