Have you ever had so much time on your hands that you end up in some really weird corners of the internet? One moment you’re watching a YouTube video and the next you’re 20 tabs deep into the workings of potato chips. No? We’re here to rectify that.
Let’s start with Pringles – their defining quality is the saddle shape, which is known in official terms as a hyperbolic paraboloid, according to ZME Science.
The distinctive shape isn’t just for aesthetics, it also makes it easier to stack the chips in the cylindrical tube container, as the hyperbolic paraboloid is plotted over a circular domain.
Another advantage of this shape is that it minimises the possibility of broken chips during transport, since they’re all packed together so tightly.
The double curvature of the Pringles chip also allows it to maintain integrity despite being very thin.
So there you go – now you know something interesting about Pringles that you can bring up at your next Zoom party.