A question that had baffled American theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate Richard Feynman many years ago has finally been answered by scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology: how to break a spaghetti stick into two pieces.

In 2005, two French physicists submitted a theory that explained why dry noodle sticks always break into more than two parts, but they didn’t have a clue on how to break a spaghetti stick in two.

A dozen years later, MIT researchers claim that they have found a way to achieve the impossible task. All it needs is a bend, a twist, and a bit of math. The researchers have built a mechanical device with two clamps at either end to hold a spaghetti stick securely. One of the clamps is rotated to twist the stick, while the other moves toward the twisting clamp to bend the spaghetti stick. According to their mathematical model, if a 10-inch-long spaghetti stick is first twisted by about 270 degrees and then bent at a speed of 3 millimeters per second, it will snap in two.

Their finding could have many important industrial applications. It could help scientists control breakages in other spaghetti-shaped materials such as engineered nanotubes or microtubules in cells.