Think of the some of the smartest people to have walked this world. Does Richard Feynman come to mind?
He was a Nobel prize-winning physicist best known for working on the Manhattan Project with Albert Einstein.
Feyman was regarded as one of the fastest thinking in his generation, and yet he could not for the life of him understand how to properly break dry spaghetti noodles.
The proper way, as in not having bits and pieces of noodles fly around the kitchen while you snap it in half.
To be fair, he's not the only one who has been confused by how to properly break these noodles before cooking them.
After much-needed research, scientists have finally discovered the right way...
Sebastein Neukirch and Basile Audoly won a parody version of the Nobel Prize for their explanation behind why dry spaghetti noodles don't break in half cleanly.
The study was published in Physical Review Journals in 2005, and explains that when dry spaghetti pasta is bent beyond their limit curvature, they break into more than two pieces.
It's this snapback that causes a vibration, sending pieces flying around your kitchen.
Recently, two graduate MIT students were eager to actually figure out the right way to break pasta, and you might kick yourself for not having thought of it before.
According to the Washington Post, they even made a spaghetti breaking contraception to get to the bottom of it.
Ronald Heisser and Edgar Gridello discovered that it is possible to break dry noodles into two halves by first twisting the noodles.
By twisting the dry noodles, you're sending a quicker vibration that prevents the pasta from chipping off into little bits and pieces.
Once the noodles are twisted, quickly bend the noodles to perfectly snap them in two perfect halves.
Bear in mind, twisting a whole box of dry pasta isn't easy.
You probably shouldn't snap spaghetti noodles in half anyway...
There are a lot of mistakes when it comes to cooking pasta, such as forgetting to stir at the right times, not saving the cooking water, rinsing the pasta after cooking, and the list goes on and on.
Long pasta can be difficult to fit in your pot, but letting the noodles slide in as the bottom parts of the noodles get soft is a good idea.
The reason why is because spaghetti is supposed to be eaten this way.
These long noodles are supposed to rotate around your fork so that it doesn't slip off. Also, the sauces won't drip from the pasta the longer the noodles are.
That being said, if you like to have your pasta short, that's up to you. It won't affect how well your pasta will be cooked, it just might affect the way you enjoy it.
[H/T: Reader's Digest / Washington Post]