Increasing the size of a piece of popcorn

Paul V. Quinn, Daniel C. Hong and J.A. Both

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2005, vol. 353, issue C, 637-648

Abstract: Popcorn is an extremely popular snack food in the world today. Thermodynamics can be used to analyze how popcorn is produced. By treating the popping mechanism of the corn as a thermodynamic expansion, a method of increasing the volume or size of a kernel of popcorn can be studied. By lowering the pressure surrounding the unpopped kernel, one can use a thermodynamic argument to show that the expanded volume of the kernel when it pops must increase. In this project, a variety of experiments are run to test the qualitative validity of this theory. The results show that there is a significant increase in the average kernel size when the pressure of the surroundings is reduced.

Keywords: Size of popcorn; Adiabatic expansion; Expansion rate; Low pressure (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:353:y:2005:i:c:p:637-648

DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2005.02.013

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