Hiya all!
Can anyone help me with a query??!
Whilst on the return flight from Majorca on Sun night, I fetched a packet of crisps out of my bag, only to find the pressure had expanded the bag to bursting point!!
But how come the crisps and other yummy food provided/sold by the staff onboard are ok?
Hmmmm...?????
Tx
RE: 'Plane' crisps!
Trinny : "yummy" aircraft food? Are you sure? What airline do you fly? (We get nothing yummy on Ryanair which is mostly what I use now, and even before that, I've never had anything yummy on BA, Aerlingus, Monarch, Helios........ Never. Nothing yummy. I did get upgraded on AmAirlines once and we got hot nuts and free champagne and salmon, but I was a little bit inebriated by then. And that was 1st class)
Sharonx
PS - my theory is that they pop the bags, which is why everything on an airplane tastes stale, but Judy would know.
RE: 'Plane' crisps!
Hiya Sharon!
On my flight I had a veggie chilli rice thingy and it was lovely!!!
Also has a profiterole (sp??) for pud and that was yummy too!! LOL
Maybe I have very simple tastes!!!
Tx
RE: 'Plane' crisps!
Well that does sound nice. Which airline was it?
Sx
RE: 'Plane' crisps!
Crossing the Rockies on a train from Chicago to San Fransisco 10 years ago I bought a bag of "chips" in the buffet, the attendant explained that the bags had burst due to the altitude.
I've had packets of peanuts on flights...maybe they vacuum pack those as they don't crush. As for crisps...maybe they make 'em specially for airlines? Surely not.
Anyone work for a crisp manufacturer?
RE: 'Plane' crisps!
I had a small tube of Pringles recently that were "blown up" a bit! I was hoping for a bit of a pop but it didn't happen [:o]
I actually have not seen crisps for ages as they always seem to sell Pringles.
I have to admit I quite like the synthetic taste of cheesecake on planes.....
RE: 'Plane' crisps!
Yeah I saw LOADS of Pringles but they too werent effected by the pressure !?!
They also had mini chedders and they were selling cans of fizzy drink...I dunno..what a mystery!!!:eek:
Tx
RE: 'Plane' crisps!
LOL
Reminds me of travels to India - i dont know what gas they put in their crisps in India but they often explode when you're at high altitude!
Indian crisps are disgusting anyway, so the bang is the best bit of the snack.
RE: 'Plane' crisps!
Hmm......so we are still none the wiser eh?
Someone must know the answer!
We also thought that they have 'special' crisps to cope with the altitude-but Ive never heard of anyone mention it b4, so Im unconvinced!
Tx
RE: 'Plane' crisps!
Ummm very interesting I see what you mean Trinityx. On our way back from Turkey last week we took a can of coke onto the plane and my partner said be careful of the pressure as it may explode and yet the stuardess comes along with cans of drink..........
Don't know what the answer is!!!
Vicki x
RE: 'Plane' crisps!
Well, back to my school days, "Air" is 4/5's Nitrogen and 1/5 other gas. Because the crisp packets expand at altitude the Nitrogen must be denser than the air outside the packet, as it can expand to fill its container. ?????? someone correct me if im wrong!!!
I stole this from the Walkers website:
"Walkers products are packaged using a Nitrogen flush to remove the oxygen from the packaging. Nitrogen helps keep the fresh flavour of the crisps by excluding oxygen and atmospheric moisture, which can cause rancid flavours and staleness. If these are excluded by nitrogen flushing, the product has the potential to stay fresh longer. The crisps are therefore, enclosed into the bag with Nitrogen to protect the product and maintain it’s fresh taste for longer"
Okay, so...
The air in a crisp packet on the ground is 'normal'. 🙂
The gas particles of nitrogen inside the packet are in an equilibrium state. This means that the forces acting on the bag from the inside are the same as those acting from the outside.:D
However, as you travel to higher ground (or maybe not ground in this case:p) the air pressure lowers - which is why our ears pop:rolleyes:. At higher elevations, there are fewer air molecules around.;)
This means that the particles are no longer in a state of equilibrium, and because there are more particles inside the bag than around it, the particles in the bag want to escape.o_O
They move faster, meaning they will hit the the sides of the bag more frequently.:cool:
Pressure is caused by particles hitting the sides of it's container.:eek:
So whilst many particles are repeatedly hitting the sides of the container, the bag is expanding, to be able to take the pressure.:oops:
If you go past a certain height (depending on the size of the packet of crisps:confused:) the bag of crisps you paid for is going to pop and be wasted:mad:, and when you're hungry you won't be very happy about that:(!