While some researchers are out there trying to find a cure for horrible diseases, our favorite scientists of the week are the group of Ph.D.s from Utah State University’s Splash Lab who used their brilliant minds to answer one of society’s biggest questions: How long is the perfect amount of time to dunk an Oreo cookie in milk. And according to these mechanical engineers, the answer is: four seconds.
Tadd Truscott runs the lab and says the question about the ideal dunking time “kept coming up” with his colleagues. So after discussing their opinions and arguing a little, they did milk stress tests for “several hours a day, for two weeks” to come up with an answer.
The engineers assumed most of us are looking for that “Goldilocks state” with our Oreos and milk. We don’t want a disintegrated pole of cookie goo, and we don’t want a barely damp Oreo either. So they wanted to find out for once and for all how long an Oreo can last before falling apart.
And through scientific experiments, the team found the cookie soaks up 50% of possible fluids in just one second. By the fourth second, it’s “reached maximum absorption,” so it’s “best eaten then.”
So now we know, with Oreos, it’s the four-second rule. If you push it to five, you’ll end up with a mushy cookie and nobody wants that!