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

["Ben Lutgens" <blutgens@usinternet.com>]

I think it would be funny if it fired the bottles out and hit you in the
chest like on T.V.

-----Original Message-----
From: Eric Hillman [mailto:ehillman@cccu.com]
Sent: Tuesday, April 25, 2000 12:26 PM
To: tclug-list@mn-linux.org
Subject: RE: [TCLUG:16681] Snapple machines (WAY OT)


> 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...



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