zustifer | (no subject)

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This is sort of weird: I was just eating some corn chips with flaxseeds in them, and I noticed after a while of eating them in front of my monitor that the seeds generally seemed to align their long axes in the same direction. See? Isn't that odd? I can't think how the seeds could be deployed in a way that would keep them directionally uniform, or how cornmeal could have a property that would hold them there.
Anyone know?

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To what precision does the alignment occur?

Hm, reasonable precision. Seems like the norm is about +5 degrees rotation yaw (if you think of the flaxseed as a little boat with the pointy tip forward). The chips I took pictures of weren't chosen for their compliance; they were just the largest ones left in the bag.
I did see some rotated around 180 degrees, so that the seed was facing exactly backward. I guess this suggests something about the cornmeal glop travelling in one direction, or something like that.
I saw I think three seeds overall that were oriented perpendicular to the others. However, I didn't exactly sort through the whole bag. I kind of ate it.

I imagine the dough is kneaded and pressed with devices that have a definite orientation to their actions, before the chips are cut into triangles and baked. Or the seeds are deposited from nozzles that exert some regularizing force.

Or they are magical homing seeds, straining to return to the source of their power.

Tortilla chips are made in centrifuges. Everyone knows that.

Oh jesus I am such an amateur.

I think if the dough is put through rollers then the flax seeds would tend to point along the axis of the rollers, while if they were extruded through a long, thin opening they would tend to point in the direction that the chips were being extruded in. Does that make sense?

One could probably set up an experiment with cookie dough and, hmm, something vaguely cylindrical or needle-shaped -- dates maybe? -- and a rolling pin to see how it works out.

Hmm, cookies. I will think upon it.

Sample size too small. Eat several gross more.

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