---
title: Why spaghetti does not break in half
date: "2005-12-25T12:00:00Z"
categories:
  - links
wp_id: 452
description: Dry spaghetti rarely breaks into just two pieces because the initial snap sends curvature waves through the remaining segments. These vibrations increase the local stress, causing the pasta to shatter into three or more fragments.
keywords: [spaghetti, physics, brittle fracture, curvature waves, structural mechanics, basile audoly, sebastien neukirch]
---

[Why spaghetti does not break in half](http://blogs.zdnet.com/emergingtech/?p=17). It usually breaks into three or more pieces. Audoly and Neukirch show several videos of this phenomenon. The also show that dry spaghetti breaks even if you just bend it, and release it suddenly. This is because the waves of curvature propogate through the spaghetti, and sometimes the curvature becomes too high. When you break spaghetti, it first breaks into two, and then the remaining halves behave as if they were released suddenly, splitting into further pieces.