# Is there a word for the "Potato Chip Effect?"
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-the-potato-chip-effect/969956
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [August 19, 2022, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-the-potato-chip-effect/969956 "2022-08-19T18:00:43Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2022, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-the-potato-chip-effect/969956/1 "2022-08-19T18:00:43Z")
I think we have all the the experience of trying to open a bag of snack chips. This requires very little strength in theory. But when you are trying to open the bag, you are being extra careful so that you don’t accidently decorate the room with Doritos. So you end up looking like a weakling who cant even do this seemingly simple task. Is there a word for this phenomenon?
FYI, this is why I just use scissors now.
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### Author:  [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2022, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-the-potato-chip-effect/969956/2 "2022-08-19T18:04:15Z")
**Unseal**
As in; George carefully unsealed the bag.
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### Author:  [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2022, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-the-potato-chip-effect/969956/3 "2022-08-19T18:07:57Z")
> **[Willfully Weak - TV Tropes](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WillfullyWeak)**
>
> A Power Limiter in which a character is intentionally suppressing their true strength, be it by magic, technology, willpower, or just by not powering up. Can be for all sorts of reasons. Maybe they want to give their opponent a fair shot at …
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### Author:  [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2022, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-the-potato-chip-effect/969956/4 "2022-08-19T20:34:58Z")
I’d like to be able to open one of those bags without using my teeth.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2022, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-the-potato-chip-effect/969956/5 "2022-08-19T20:47:59Z")
…What’s so difficult about opening a bag of chips?
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### Author:  [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2022, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-the-potato-chip-effect/969956/6 "2022-08-19T20:50:56Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> What’s so difficult about opening a bag of chips?
Random glue strength, IME. Most times, they open right up with a reasonable application of force. Occasionally, I’m not certain the Hulk could open them (and that would end up with chips everywhere).
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### Author:  [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2022, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-the-potato-chip-effect/969956/7 "2022-08-19T22:04:07Z")
Important information:
[How to open a bag of chips quietly](https://soundproofliving.com/how-to-open-a-bag-of-chips-quietly/#:~:text=Using%20the%20scissors%20to%20open,exposed%20and%20easy%20to%20reach.)
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### Author:  [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2022, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-the-potato-chip-effect/969956/8 "2022-08-20T01:46:30Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> …What’s so difficult about opening a bag of chips?
The behavior of the bag material and the adhesive/sealant can vary quite a bit from brand to brand. Sometimes while you’re pulling hard the adhesive releases suddenly, or the bag tears suddenly, and you launch chips in every direction before you can react and relax the muscles that were doing the pulling.
I’ve found it effective to keep my elbows tight against my sides and the bag close to my chest so that I’m really mostly recruiting my wrist muscles to open the bag. Somehow it’s easier to convince them to relax quickly enough to avoid catastrophe if/when the bag suddenly opens. Maybe it’s just a matter of wrist range-of-motion being much less than that of your entire arms?
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### Author:  [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2022, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-the-potato-chip-effect/969956/9 "2022-08-20T10:28:54Z")
I use scissors the vast majority of the time. Not only is there no chance at the bag busting open, but it leaves a clean edge that won’t tear further. I’ve found that for some bag types, if there’s even the tiniest nick in the edge, it can propagate all the way down the bag, making it useless.
If I absolutely must open the bag manually, I try to open just a small portion of it, usually near the center, by kinda rolling it open. Hard to explain, but I try to use my hands as levers, with my thumbs as the pivot. The force is amplified and the speed lowered. Usually I just need to make a small opening, and the adhesive separates fairly cleanly from there.
I think most people have more control at a lower fraction of peak strength than at a high fraction. Just about anyone has sufficient strength to open a bag of chips, but a really strong person could do it more slowly and evenly, with less chance of failure.
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### Author:  [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2022, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-the-potato-chip-effect/969956/10 "2022-08-20T10:39:09Z")
I’ve assumed that the packaging is designed so that you tear off more than you intend, thereby forcing you to eat more, and then buy more chips. No?
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### Author:  [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2022, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-the-potato-chip-effect/969956/11 "2022-08-20T10:58:12Z")
I eat a small bag of cheese crisps daily. They are infuriating to open. There is (usually) a small starter slit that is easy enough to get you going, but it is vertical. So the bag tears _downward_, which is, for me, all types of unpleasantness.
And, as often happens, if that starter slit is not there, that bag will remain tightly sealed until you can procure some scissors.
mmm
[https://imgur.com/TcRpcp5](https://imgur.com/TcRpcp5)
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### Author:  [@Heracles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heracles)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2022, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-the-potato-chip-effect/969956/12 "2022-08-20T11:03:43Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#):
>
> If I absolutely must open the bag manually, I try to open just a small portion of it, usually near the center, by kinda rolling it open. Hard to explain, but I try to use my hands as levers, with my thumbs as the pivot. The force is amplified and the speed lowered. Usually I just need to make a small opening, and the adhesive separates fairly cleanly from there.
I think that describes what I do as well. No risk of the bag bursting open.
There is a certain brand of crackers, [Crunch Master](https://www.costco.ca/crunchmaster---craquelins-multigrains%2c-567-g.product.100417671.html) to be exact, that use inner bags made of strong “metallic” plastic and closed with either very strong glue or maybe a heat seal. I have never managed to open one of those without scissors.
As for the word, well, I’m not sure there is one. “Willfully weak” is the concept, I guess, as @Q.Q.Switcheroo said.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2022, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-the-potato-chip-effect/969956/13 "2022-08-20T12:50:08Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#):
>
> I’ve found that for some bag types, if there’s even the tiniest nick in the edge, it can propagate all the way down the bag, making it useless.
That can happen, and you can solve it by deliberately propagating the tear in a little loop back on itself.
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### Author:  [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2022, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-the-potato-chip-effect/969956/14 "2022-08-20T15:58:26Z")
That might be one of the strangest website niches I’ve ever seen…
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### Author:  [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2022, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-the-potato-chip-effect/969956/15 "2022-08-20T16:01:53Z")
If the bag is resistant to unsealing, try tearing it down near a corner off the top.
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### Author:  [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2022, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-the-potato-chip-effect/969956/16 "2022-08-20T16:08:59Z")
After reading only the thread title and not the OP, I was sure that the “Potato Chip Effect” was the fact that once you eat one chip, you won’t stop until the bag is empty. But the opening challenge of course is a big problem too. Pro-tip: don’t squeeze the bag, or else you open it at the wrong end…
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### Author:  [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2022, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-the-potato-chip-effect/969956/17 "2022-08-20T16:15:30Z")
And bad math right from the start. 284 million Americans is only “more than a third”?
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### Author:  [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2022, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-the-potato-chip-effect/969956/18 "2022-08-20T22:26:06Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> That can happen, and you can solve it by deliberately propagating the tear in a little loop back on itself
Or simply drill a small hole at the end of the tear, the way that it’s done with aircraft skin.
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### Author:  [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2022, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-the-potato-chip-effect/969956/19 "2022-08-20T22:53:09Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#):
>
> After reading only the thread title and not the OP, I was sure that the “Potato Chip Effect” was the fact that once you eat one chip, you won’t stop until the bag is empty. But the opening challenge of course is a big problem too. Pro-tip: don’t squeeze the bag, or else you open it at the wrong end…
heh, I have a story on being careful on how you _teach_ someone to open a bag…
when my 2nd oldest nephew was about 4 or 5 he couldn’t open a chip bag…so his dad taught him to squeeze the bottom of the bag where it “pops” open Now on smaller bags this usually worked as it just opened enough that he could pull apart the bag but…
Well he’s about 7 and we went to sams club (walmarts bulk buy store)and they sell the Frito-lay snack mix called “munchies” in 4-5 pound bags and we bought some Well on the way back home we decide to open a bag …
He opens the big bag that’s really air inflated and all of a sudden there’s a loud pop as he blew out the entire bag bottom 5 pounds of pretzels Cheetos, sun chips, and, Doritos are flying everywhere, and what was left just dropped out of the bag …
He was crying because he thought we were going to be mad because of the mess and he wasted a 6 dollar bag of chips and grandma said no and explained that he was too big to open a bag that way …it took a month to get the smell out and I’m not entirely sure we ever got all of the chips out of the van before we had to trade it in
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### Author:  [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2022, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-the-potato-chip-effect/969956/20 "2022-08-20T23:07:49Z")
As a strong dude there are many times I must make an effort to be _delicate_. Using tools, doing medical procedures, turning things off…
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