Its design took 2 years and required the use of supercomputers
[citation needed]
pringles
Submitted 8 months ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to science_memes@mander.xyz
https://mander.xyz/pictrs/image/231ef4cb-72c0-401a-81d3-5852940a6f71.png
Comments
SweetCitrusBuzz@beehaw.org 8 months ago
zerakith@lemmy.ml 8 months ago
It is quite hard to track down but here’s it being reported by the head of modelling at P&G in 2006
zerakith@lemmy.ml 8 months ago
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.
pineapplelover@lemm.ee 8 months ago
Is this real or am I being trolled
blind3rdeye@lemm.ee 8 months ago
With the stuff about ‘super computers’, this seems more like a shitpost than a science meme.
FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 8 months ago
prenatal_confusion@lemmy.one 8 months ago
That article is useless. Any other reference?
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 8 months ago
What “supercomputer” did they use in 1968 to make the chip shape when Pringles were invented?
deuleb_biezelbob@programming.dev 8 months ago
A real human bean
Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 8 months ago
10 vacuum tubes
Belgdore@lemm.ee 8 months ago
ENIAC was built in 1945. And Cray was building supercomputers in the 60s
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I understand that there were supercomputers for the day. I want to know exactly which one was used to design a reconstituted potato chip.
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 8 months ago
My digging around has resulted in this find:
cows_are_underrated@feddit.org 8 months ago
I guess they needed it to mathematically design and calculate with it but idk
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 8 months ago
My digging around has resulted in this find:
Jackcooper@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Completely leaves out that you can use two of them to make yourself look like a duck
Slovene@feddit.nl 8 months ago
And it’s cheaper than lip fillers.
LNRDrone@sopuli.xyz 8 months ago
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.
M137@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I don’t think you’re supposed to eat the tube, shouldn’t matter that it goes stale.
smeg@feddit.uk 8 months ago
“Once you pop you can’t stop” is actually a warning about this
Ephera@lemmy.ml 8 months ago
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.anzo@programming.dev 8 months ago
I really thought everyone was eating them entirely and in stacks of 5 …
Transporter_Room_3@startrek.website 8 months ago
No, the shape hinders putting the far enough into your mouth. Luckily, I’ve got a big one.
Wait…
roguetrick@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I was fitting a whole upside down Pringle along my tongue when I was a kid.
CloutAtlas@hexbear.net 8 months ago
Pringles aren’t legally chips because they’re made from mashed potato dough (as opposed to slices of potato), hence why marketing calls them crisps even in the US.
smeg@feddit.uk 8 months ago
arin@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Also abot 10-15% of thr chips crumble at the bottom to cushion the rest of the pringles
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 8 months ago
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.
troyunrau@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
It’s commonly cited that sci fi author Gene Wolfe is one of four people credited with development of the machine that makes Pringles. Primary source interview, via archive.org
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 8 months ago
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.
niktemadur@lemmy.world 8 months ago
The Supermarine Spitfire.
The London Metro map design.
The Pringles potato chip.MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 8 months ago
They should be smaller though, so they fit in one piece into the mouth withouth hurting yourself.
Thorry84@feddit.nl 8 months ago
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.
dmention7@lemm.ee 8 months ago
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.
SuspiciousCatThing@pawb.social 8 months ago
Bro I can fit a stack of Pringles in my mouth.
^you’re ^not ^wrong ^though
mEEGal@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Gif or it didn’t happen
keepcarrot@hexbear.net 8 months ago
I believe shrinkflation has in fact made them smaller
KyuubiNoKitsune@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 months ago
They’ve suffered shrinkflation in my home country and they’re much smaller.
sundray@lemmus.org 8 months ago
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.
StereoTrespasser@lemmy.world 8 months ago
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.
SkyezOpen@lemmy.world 8 months ago
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.
sundray@lemmus.org 8 months ago
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. 😆
ReeferPirate@lemy.lol 8 months ago
I had read that they create downforce so they stay put in a conveyor
xthexder@l.sw0.com 8 months ago
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)
angelmountain@feddit.nl 8 months ago
And I still don’t like the shape. I can’t bite in it properly.
andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
It’s an all-sided showel for sauce, yum.
BruceTwarzen@lemm.ee 8 months ago
But they couldn’t make them taste good. Just vut some potatoes you dorks.
SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Error 429
Pringles@lemm.ee 8 months ago
You’re goddamn right!
drolex@sopuli.xyz 8 months ago
self-centering […] easy to stack up
What is this supposed to mean?
Ephera@lemmy.ml 8 months ago
I can’t really think of a better example, but well, if you stack half-cylinders like these:
Image …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.
lastunusedusername2@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
There is no way the design took two years and required supercomputers
windowsphoneguy@feddit.org 8 months ago
But they had to crunch the numbers
lastunusedusername2@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
Oh shit I take it back
sudo@lemmy.today 8 months ago
Okay, I’ll bite. Tell me more about how they did it.
ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 8 months ago
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.
tetris11@lemmy.ml 8 months ago
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.
Nfamwap@lemmy.world 8 months ago
It took 3 seconds, and it was AI what figured it all out.
RecluseRamble@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 months ago
AI doesn’t figure out shit.