The special Pizza & Popcorn Questions issue (vol. 24, no. 1) of the Annals of Improbable Research is now available. The issue’s table of contents is online. And you can obtain, for a pittance, the full issue. The magazine is in splendid PDF form, packed with info yet lighter by far than a feather or a popcorn kernel. “The Evolution of Popcorn” […]
Tag: popcorn
Eating Popcorn in Front of a Mirror May Induce Some People to Eat More Popcorn
Eating popcorn in front of a mirror is a provocative act — provoking the urge to eat more popcorn — suggests this study: “The ‘Social’ Facilitation of Eating Without the Presence of Others: Self-reflection on Eating Makes Food Taste Better and People Eat More,” Ryuzaburo Nakata and Nobuyuki Kawai, Physiology and Behavior, epub 2017. The […]
“Why does popcorn jump when it bursts?”
Emmanuel Virot explains, carefully, why he believes popcorn bursts when it jumps: Details, in writing, burst from the pages of the study “Popcorn: critical temperature, jump and sound,” by E. Virot and A. Ponomarenko, published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface [12, 20141247 (2015)]. Virot contemplates popcorn at the Hydrodynamics Laboratory at École Polytechnique. The […]
Analyzing Why Bearcats Smell Like Popcorn
A new study adds to our knowledge of why some animals sometimes smell like buttered popcorn. The study is: “Reproductive Endocrine Patterns and Volatile Urinary Compounds of Arctictis binturong: Discovering Why Bearcats Smell Like Popcorn,” Lydia K. Greene [pictured below], Timothy W. Wallen, Anneke Moresco, Thomas E. Goodwin, Christine M. Drea, The Science of Nature, […]
Physics of Low Pressure Popcorn Popping
There’s news, though a few years old, about low-pressure popcorn popping: “The Effects of Popping Popcorn Under Reduced Pressure,” Paul Quinn [pictured here] and Amanda Cooper, Bulletin of the American Physical Society, Volume 53, Number 2 (poster at the 2008 APS March Meeting, New Orleans, Louisiana). The authors, at Kutztown University, report: “In our experiments, we […]
‘A Video Lesson on the Price of Movie Popcorn’
Richard B. McKenzie is the Walter B. Gerken Professor Emeritus of Enterprise and Society at The Paul Merage School of Business, University of California, Irvine. Here he is presenting ‘A Video Lesson on the Price of Movie Popcorn’ Also see: ‘Why Popcorn Costs So Much at the Movies’ by Richard B. McKenzie and Gordon Tullock, […]
Pop psychology: Skinner and Redenbacher
Two psychology tidbits, both involving Skinner and Redenbacher: First: Robin Abrahams, our psychology editor, notes that behaviorism psychologist B.F. Skinner and popcorn magnate Orville Redenbacher resembled each other [see photos here]. [NOTE: Can pigeons can be trained to distinguish photographs of one from photographs of the other? The experiment has not yet been done.] Second: A […]
When Is a Lung Abscess Like Popcorn?
“When Is a Lung Abscess Like Popcorn?” asks Dr. Mark Crislip, in a Medscape Today report on December 29, 2010. (Thanks to investigator Edwin Spector for bringing this to our attention.) Dr. Crislip, musing about an odor associated with a particular patient, muses: The patient is a 17-year-old girl who had been sick for 1 […]
Question about popcorn in movie theaters
… It made watching the movie an even more interesting experience than it would otherwise be. Normally, I watch movies (and television, and plays) with two levels of consciousness. The first is the sort of untutored, automatic reactions of feeling sad or happy for the characters, enjoying the pretty visuals, and so on. Then there’s […]
Roasting Faith Popcorn
“Burned Popcorn and Broken Crystal Balls: Beware of False Prophets Bearing Food,” Ed Chung, Hiroshi Nakamura and Amy Spielbauer, in Proceedings: Marketing Management Association Spring Conference 1999. R. Green, D.Varble and G. Wunder, eds.. Chicago, 1999 . The authors, at St. Norbert College, Wisconsin, report: “In the late 1980’s, Faith Popcorn forecasted the trends of […]