Supervisor: Søren Ulstrup

As physicists we concern ourselves with problems of great scope and difficulty, from the quantum world to the whole wide universe. But as problems become increasingly complex, do they also become increasingly fun? We live in a world surrounded by interesting and fun physics; physical descriptions of seemingly ordinary items can uncover unexpected phenomena and counterintuitive results with rich physics underlying. Turning our attention to the culinary icon that is pasta and delving deeper we seek answers to fundamental questions such as: What is pasta? Why can’t I break pasta into two? Is there a physical definition of al dente? To find the answers to these questions we embark on a journey from the microscopic structure of pasta to the theory of elastic rods and the thermodynamics of boiling food. In this presentation we take a break from the grand problems of our time and attempt to demonstrate conclusively that there is more than only one way to enjoy a pasta.