- Engineers at MIT recently built a device called
an Oreometer to test how Oreo cookies split
and how the creme filling separates from the wafers.
There are different ways to eat an Oreo you might pull the
two wafers apart, unscrew the two sides of the cookie,
or dunk it in milk and bite right into it.
The researchers were studying rheometry,
or the physics of fluids and how they flow.
They called this particular study Oreology.
Oreo creme is a soft solid called a yield stress fluid
a group that includes cookie dough, concrete, and lava.
We weren't able to build an Oreometer at the Gizmodo office,
but in this video you can see a demonstration
of how the machine works.
The Oreo is placed between two clamps.
Rubber bands on the clamps adjust torque on the wafers,
and as coins are added to one side of the Oreometer,
the clamp turns, separating the cookie.
The team found that the clean-ness
of the break didn't depend
on how fast they rotated the wafers,
how much creme there was,
or what flavor of the cookie they used.
It depends on how much adhesion there is between the creme
and the wafers.
Researchers made the Oreometer design open-source,
so you build and run your own experiments at home.
And then taste the cookies, for obvious science reasons.
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