The Real Reason It's Impossible To Twist An Oreo Exactly In Half

Before we begin, let us ask you a question. How do you eat your Oreos? Do you like to just dunk the whole cookie in milk until it gets soft? Do you skip the milk altogether and eat a couple right out of the sleeve? Or maybe you twist the cookie apart, eat the creme filling, and then dunk the cookie pieces into milk?

It's this "twist, lick, and dunk" method that, according to the minds behind Oreo, is technically the "right" way to eat milk's favorite cookie (via Yahoo! News). This may be the "correct way," but it's also the most complicated, at least when compared to just dunking the cookie.

When you twist the top half of an Oreo, what happens? Does it come off in one fluid twist, or does some of the creme get stuck to it? Maybe the cookie breaks apart, leaving you with one half of the top and the other half still in place. It's certainly a problem for those Oreo purists who want to enjoy their cookie the way it was supposedly meant to be eaten. Some, like David Neevel, have invented special Oreo Separator Machines. Others have used vacuum chambers to get the sweet creme center out in one piece (via YouTube).

But for one group of scientists, the dream of splitting an Oreo exactly in half is impossible.

Yes, you read that right. According to CNET, a group of scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology sought to answer the question of it there's any possible "correct" way to twist open your Oreo cookie. This wasn't just for the sheer fun of it but instead a study on the fluid properties of certain foodstuff, which, in this case, is the Oreo (via MIT News).

In order to proceed with their experiment, the MIT researchers created the "Oreometer," a device that, despite sounding like it measures the speed and aerodynamics of an Oreo, is built specifically to twist the cookie apart. This 3-D printed device is similar to a clamp, in which the two chocolate sides of the Oreo are locked in place and a weight, such as pennies, is used to pull the Oreo apart. 

In the end, the team discovered that how fast you twist your Oreos is what actually matters. The faster you twist your Oreos, the harder it will be to get them apart evenly. This would mean, to get that perfect twist, you'd have to twist your Oreos very slowly, or at least slower than you normally would.

Nevertheless, no matter if you're a twister or a dunker, you can sit back, grab a glass of ice-cold milk, and down a few of these beloved chocolate sandwich cookies as you read about how they're really made.