RE: [TCLUG:16681] Snapple machines (WAY OT)

["Eric Hillman" <ehillman@cccu.com>]

> This has nothing to do with linux, or even computers, but it's a question
> that two nerds (a buddy and myself) have tossed around for a very long
> time but we can't seem to find a good explanation.  At most grocery
> stores, there's a Snapple vending machine that dispenses glass bottles of
> the refreshing beverage.  When dispensed, these glass bottles take a very
> steep plunge onto what sounds to be a very hard surface (sometimes
> accompanied by a "clank").  What keeps the bottles from breaking when they
> land?

I don't think this is related, but I recall seeing a machine at a highway rest
area in Ohio that dropped glass bottles through something like one of those
penny & nails probability demonstrators your 4th grade science teacher probably
whipped out at some point...

bottle
    starts
       here
  . . ./.
   . .\.
  . . ./.
   . ./.
      |
  >clunk<

Thereby distributing the energy of the bottle's descent into several small
impacts rather than one big one.

But, I suspect it's mainly just the fact that your average flled-up Snapple
bottle can normally withstand a 3-foot freefall without breaking.  They may
engineer the dispenser so it tries to drop the bottles at a favorable angle
(not, say, head-first onto the cap, snapping the neck), but other than that, I
don't think there's much engineering involved.  I suppose we could get a case of
'em and do some trials...