Study Finds ‘Best Way’ To Open Up An Oreo

Oreo cookies are a common topic of discussion for many of us, but up until now, we have never managed to make a scientific study out of it.

Oreology is here to change the game for many of us. They are studying the flow and fracture of these sandwich cookies and luckily for us, the findings are being shared with the rest of the world in a scientific paper.

Everyone has their own way of eating these cookies. Some of us will twist them apart and eat them in two halves. Others will shove the entire thing into their own and others will dunk it in some milk first. However, those who are more apt to twist the cookie into two separate pieces have probably taken notice of one crucial aspect: The filling never seems to distribute itself evenly when the cookies are separated from one another.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology has some very diligent researchers who have been on the case and they are reporting their findings. Is it even possible to keep the creme filling evenly distributed between the two sides? This is the question that has been plaguing us for some time now.

According to Vice, a Ph.D. candidate in mechanical engineering at MIT, Crystal Owens, said: “I was personally motivated by a desire to solve a challenge that had puzzled me as a child: How to open an Oreo and get creme evenly arranged on both wafers?”

Owens recently realized that she could use the lab’s high-tech tools that she had at her disposal to get started. The research team came up with something that is known as the Oreometer. This is a three-dimensional printing device that has been “designed for Oreos and similarly dimensioned round objects,” according to the intrepid scientists. So what did they manage to come up with?

“The results validated what I saw as a child — we found no trick for opening up our Oreos,” Owens says. At least they were willing to give it the old college try. “In the case that creme ends up on both wafers, it tends to divide in half so that each wafer has a ‘half-moon’ of creme, rather than a thin layer,” Owens concluded, “so there is no secret to get creme evenly everywhere just by twisting open — you have to mush it manually if that’s what you want.”

However, the study did note that the rotation rate impacted how “cleanly” the cookie and cream separated, so it’s good to go slower and take your time.