OPENING sweets at the movies always creates a disturbance. And now we know
why. The crinkles in commonly used wrappings such as Mylar and cellophane are to
blame, says a Massachusetts physicist.
“This class of materials seems to be almost uniquely suited for producing
very loud noises,” says Eric Kramer of Simon’s Rock College of Bard in Great
Barrington.
Kramer studied the sounds that pre-crumpled Mylar makes when it is unwrapped
and scrunched up again. He found that the unwrapping cacophony is a series of
individual clicks, caused by crinkles in the material. They release energy as
they go from…
