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Why this hollow in a pile of crêpes?

Dear all,

After having cooked about 40 crêpes (I'm French), I put them in a plate (whose edges are higher than the center of it) in order to form a pile.

The crepes at the top of the pile are curved, just like on this picture.

I'm sure it is due to the shape of the plate combined with gravity on top of the pile (the crepes are pulled down in their center of gravity, like the hypothetical ball on the image) but my roommate thinks that the crepes have cooked less in the middle than on the edges, explaining the shape. I'm pretty convinced that with truly uniform crepes the result would be the same. What is your explanation ?

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  • Asked by Noemie28
  • on 2010-10-05 23:32:49
  • Member status
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Categories: Domestic Science.

Tags: gravity, Food, Shape, hollow.

 

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Jon-Richfield says:

I certainly agree with you that the shape of the plate is the crucial factor, whether the crêpes are evenly cooked or not, but in science (pardon my virtuous expression) agreement does not amount to cogency. Experiment seems to me a more persuasive option.

Make another, extra-large batch of crêpes (try not to be distracted by sympathetically  imagining my wistful expression), share the products into two piles, one on that same plate, and the other on a flat surface (you might want to try  a third pile on a convex surface such as an inverted plate; after all, Rutherford got his first revealing breakthrough when he looked for scattering where he never expected to see anything!) and see what shapes you get. Such an extended experiment might not merely solve your problem, but leave you with new questions...

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Tags: gravity, Food, Shape, hollow.

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posted on 2010-10-06 10:26:03 | Report abuse


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