For the past few days there have been news about scientists solving the old problem of bending a piece of spaghetti and breaking it into exactly two halves. Earlier it was already determined that the spaghetti breaks into several pieces because when it breaks at one spot, mechanical waves travel along the piece. Initially one would believe that such vibrations would dampen without breaking the piece, but opposite was found to be true. In reality, the waves cause heavy bends at several spots that are sufficient to cause further fractures.
I'm wondering how is it possible? If we first beld the piece we "store" potential energy in the bent piece. When we release it, how can it again bend FURTHER at some other spot? Would this require more potential energy than we initially put in the bend?
