Researchers may have solved the long-standing mystery of how many licks it really takes to get to the center of a lollipop.
Researchers pinpointed the process by which materials (in this case candy) are shaped and dissolved by water currents, New York University reported.
"How flowing fluids generate unique shapes through erosion or dissolution is complex and fascinating," said Leif Ristroph, an assistant professor at NYU's Courant Institute and the paper's senior author.
The team studied this effect by immersing hard candy in a water current, and were surprised by the shape that consistently emerged before disappearing. This peculiar shape presented itself in the currents regardless of the original shape and the speed of the water flow.
To make their findings, the research team cooked up pieces of candy measuring about two inches each that were shaped as spheres or cylinders. They placed the candy in a water tunnel containing well-controlled flows and captured the change of shape with me-lapse photography.
By formulating a theory for "how flows cause dissolving and shrinking," the researchers accidentally solved the "how many licks" conundrum; the answer turned out to be about 1,000 licks.
The research also provides insight into serious scientific concepts such as how materials dissolve, which could have implications for the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. These products rely on the incorporation of solid compounds into solutions, either within a chemical reactor or the human body.
The work could also be useful for the field of geology because it suggests a link between the morphology of eroding land and the flows they are influenced by. These findings could help explain the unusual and irregular land formations seen on Earth.
The findings were published in a recent edition of the Journal of Fluid Mechanics.
