Spaghetti Science

Spaghetti Science is aimed at elementary school readers and begins with fun factoids about spaghetti, what qualifies as spaghetti, and what does not. It then follows the journey from cultivating durum wheat and milling it into flour to manufacturing, packaging, and transporting the pasta. Other pasta varieties are introduced, along with an easy recipe and variations. A double-page spread explores choosing the right tomatoes for sauce. The book concludes with hands-on “spaghetti science,” including building a spaghetti bridge to support the most coins and explaining why dry spaghetti doesn’t cleanly snap in two pieces when bent.

While the book offers more than simple factoids, it leaves out several engaging scientific angles suitable for young readers. The physics of spaghetti’s clean break is explained, but the twisting variation to snapback is omitted. Missing entirely is the science of cooking spaghetti – such as gelatinization, emulsification, and retrogradation – which could be simplified for elementary audiences. There is also no discussion of spaghetti’s viscoelastic properties, including adhesion and stress behavior (like slurping). Remarkably, spaghetti has even inspired astrophysics through “spaghettification” (the noodle effect) near black holes. Given how rich the topic is, Spaghetti Science could have incorporated even more genuine science.