There is no way the design took two years and required supercomputers
this post was submitted on 10 Aug 2024
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But they had to crunch the numbers
Oh shit I take it back
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.
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Its design took 2 years and required the use of supercomputers
[citation needed]
It is quite hard to track down but here's it being reported by the head of modelling at P&G in 2006
https://www.hpcwire.com/2006/05/05/high_performance_potato_chips/
[Sincere] Thanks a lot!
[Condescending answer]: I am programmed to burn holes in meatbags, master.
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Though worth saying that the link suggests the computing was used for aerodynamics for ensuring production wouldn't destroy them not. For the shape as such. I've also seem it said that the can is part of that too.
Is this real or am I being trolled
I'm pretty sure it's real. I met someone once who worked in materials research for food and they said that modelling was big there because the scope for experimentation is more limited. In materials for construction where they wanted to change a property they could play around with adding new additives and seeing what happens. For food though you can't add anything beyond a limited set of chemicals that already have approval from the various agencies* and therefore they look at trying to fine tune in other ways.
So for chocolate, for example, they control lots of material properties by very careful control of temperature and pressure as it solidifies. This is why if chocolate melts and resolidifies you see the white bits of milk that don't remain within the materia.
*Okay you can add a new chemical but that means a time frame of over a decade to then get approval. I think the number of chemicals that's happened to is very very small and that's partly because the innovation framework of capitalism is very short term.
wonder what kinda of supercomputer they used in 1968
A Cray would be my guess. Possibly even a CDC 7600 running at a whopping 36 MHz if they were really on the bleeding edge (it came out that same year).
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With the stuff about 'super computers', this seems more like a shitpost than a science meme.
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Completely leaves out that you can use two of them to make yourself look like a duck
And it's cheaper than lip fillers.
What “supercomputer” did they use in 1968 to make the chip shape when Pringles were invented?
Edit:
My digging around has resulted in this find:
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.
I don't think you're supposed to eat the tube, shouldn't matter that it goes stale.
"Once you pop you can't stop" is actually a warning about this
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.
I really thought everyone was eating them entirely and in stacks of 5 ...
No, the shape hinders putting the far enough into your mouth. Luckily, I've got a big one.
Wait...
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Also abot 10-15% of thr chips crumble at the bottom to cushion the rest of the pringles
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.
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The Supermarine Spitfire.
The London Metro map design.
The Pringles potato chip.
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.
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I had read that they create downforce so they stay put on a conveyor
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.
They should be smaller though, so they fit in one piece into the mouth withouth hurting yourself.
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.
> 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.
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Bro I can fit a stack of Pringles in my mouth.
They've suffered shrinkflation in my home country and they're much smaller.
It's an all-sided showel for sauce, yum.
And I still don't like the shape. I can't bite in it properly.
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