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Why is ketchup so hard to pour? - George Zaidan

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Ever go to pour ketchup on your fries…and nothing comes out? Or the opposite happens, and your plate is suddenly swimming in a sea of red? George Zaidan describes the physics behind this frustrating phenomenon, explaining how ketchup and other non-Newtonian fluids can suddenly transition from solid to liquid and back again.

We show the tomato particles in the video as perfectly spherical, like billiard balls. Do you think they are like this in real life? What are some of the differences between tomato particles and really tiny billiard balls?

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