WIS News 10 - Columbia, South Carolina | NASA experimenting with ketchup on Space Shuttle

NASA experimenting with ketchup on Space Shuttle

(Columbia) Sept. 17, 2002 - The way Ketchup, AKA Catsup, refuses to leave its bottle, then suddenly changes its mind and gushes all over your burger or fries, may seem like an ineffable mystery, but scientists at NASA have decided to figure out why.

The reason ketchup makes a mess is called "shear thinning," something stumping even physicists. Greg Zimmerli, PhD, physicists, of NASA Glenn Research Center explains, "Shear thinning is a term we use to describe a very strange property in some fluids."

Ketchup, along with other complex fluids like shaving cream, paint, whipped cream and blood all share the same strangeness: normally thick, they can become thin when stirred or shaken.

Dr. Zimmerli says, "There's just no way to accurately predict how the fluid is going to respond when we stir it harder and harder."

The mystery is now out of this world. On a recent Space Shuttle mission, Zimmerli says physicists set to find out why fluids like ketchup act so strangely, "We'll probably spend a year or two analyzing the data. In the meantime, I'm still looking for the sweet spot to hit the ketchup bottle."

Zimmerli recommends holding the ketchup bottle at a 45-degree angle and repeatedly tapping the back with your wrist. The space experiment, CVX-2, was launched on Space Shuttle Columbia.

Just one note: plastic bottles make ketchup distribution a thing of the past.

posted 2:48pm by Chris Rees