# Starburst aren't cubes!!! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 20, 2002, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starburst-arent-cubes/144126 "2002-12-20T22:31:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2002, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starburst-arent-cubes/144126/21 "2002-12-21T08:29:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Bryan Ekers \* > \*\*Ah. Further evidence of punctuated equilibrium. \*\* Isn’t that _punctured_?? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2002, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starburst-arent-cubes/144126/22 "2002-12-21T12:46:37Z")
[Picasso](http://www.angelfire.com/co/artgeometry/) is laughing from the grave at this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Shade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2002, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starburst-arent-cubes/144126/23 "2002-12-21T14:36:55Z")
I like ‘three dimensional cubes.’ OK, it’s not like ‘cube’ can’t be generalised, but I bet the person writing it would have thought 3-d was superfluous. If they said cubic (instead of cuboidal) we might find a compromise… ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2002, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starburst-arent-cubes/144126/24 "2002-12-21T15:04:04Z")
While not “cubes” precisely Starburst candies are actually non-relativistic anti-planes with edges extending into nth dimensional vector spaces that occupy an orthogonal surface in spacetime where the division between space and time depends upon the observer. In the 26 spacetime dimensions of the Starburst cube these extra unphysical states wind up disappearing when the flavor packed Starburst cube collapses into a singularity and the escape velocity from the cube’s gravitational field becomes greater than the speed of light. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2002, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starburst-arent-cubes/144126/25 "2002-12-21T17:15:01Z")
A square is a rhombus and a rectangle, and the proper term for the shape of a Starburst is “parallelepiped”. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2002, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starburst-arent-cubes/144126/26 "2002-12-21T17:54:19Z")
And _Bats aren’t bugs!!!_ ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2002, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starburst-arent-cubes/144126/27 "2002-12-21T18:52:04Z")
I think you are mistaken in assuming the good people at Starburst are reffering to geometry. The original starburst used a measurement known as “flavor” (fl) to quantify the amount of fruit based enjoyment. With the splitting of the atom, the Starburst scientists were able to increase the amount of enjoyment to 2fl. This was revealed to the public in the radio campaign: “Starburst: the weight’s 2fl”. The public, who are drooling morons, misunderstood and heard “Starburst: the way to flavor” Subsequent advances in computerization raised enjoyment to fl[sup]2[/sup] and is the flavor level most of us grew up with. The public, who are drooling morons, thought this refered to the oblique. Recent breakthroughs in cloning and signal transduction have enabled the starburst scientists to raise the quotient yet again to its current fl[sup]3[/sup]. The public, who are drooling morons, has misunderstood this advance in quantum flavor packing. Starbursts no longer possess a squared flavor level. They are now cubes. They are still, of course, three dimensional as the hypothesized multidimmensional super candy is still nothing more than science fiction. ---
**Author:** ![Myrr21](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Myrr21](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myrr21)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2002, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starburst-arent-cubes/144126/28 "2002-12-21T20:45:31Z")
Starburst are also parallelepipeds. I love that word! ---
**Author:** ![SCSimmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e495f1/32.png) [@SCSimmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCSimmons)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2002, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starburst-arent-cubes/144126/29 "2002-12-21T20:46:25Z")
I’m willing to forgive their error, as I feel they made up for it with the commercial that started with a girl unwrapping a Starburst with her tongue … ---
**Author:** ![Shadez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90ced4/32.png) [@Shadez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shadez)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2002, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starburst-arent-cubes/144126/30 "2002-12-22T00:44:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by gonzoron \* > \*\*Nitwits! Look at your product… Then take a 3rd grade geometry class. Then tell me again what shape they are. OK? > \*\* Wow you must be smart… 😃 I didn’t take geometry til 10th grade. (I was a year behind in my math classes. Blah!) Hehe. /Shadez ---
**Author:** ![deathawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ed8c4c/32.png) [@deathawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deathawk)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2002, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starburst-arent-cubes/144126/31 "2002-12-22T01:41:32Z")
I’m still trying to get past the phrase “ **three-dimensional** cubes”… ---
**Author:** ![Shade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2002, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starburst-arent-cubes/144126/32 "2002-12-22T12:18:37Z")
Well, maybe they’re using a different metric. If lengths are measured differently in different directions, then they could be cubes. (They could be spheres in a new york metric.) ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2002, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starburst-arent-cubes/144126/33 "2002-12-22T12:26:27Z")
Is that like a New York Minute? Or is it more like a Bronx Cheer? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![ioioio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ioioio/32/316_2.png) [@ioioio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ioioio)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2002, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starburst-arent-cubes/144126/34 "2002-12-22T13:25:26Z")
So, those chunks of ice floating in my soft drink should properly be called “ice rectangular solids”? ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2002, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starburst-arent-cubes/144126/35 "2002-12-22T13:27:14Z")
Mine are more like trapazoidal solids. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2002, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starburst-arent-cubes/144126/36 "2002-12-22T13:56:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by lainaf \* > \*\*So, those chunks of ice floating in my soft drink should properly be called “ice rectangular solids”? \*\* Holy crud!!! **You’re right!!** Ice “cubes” are no more cubes than my third nipple!!! Look at one for God’s sake. **Look at it!** They’re **not** perfectly square by any stretch of the imagination!! They’re rectangular solids! Oh faithless lying world!! Your hellish geometrical lies consume me with the rage of 10,000 white hot suns!! HOWWWWWLLLLL!! ARRRGGGHHHH!!! ---
**Author:** ![Another\_Primate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Another\_Primate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Another_Primate)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2002, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starburst-arent-cubes/144126/37 "2002-12-22T14:24:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by astro \* > \*\*Holy crud!!! **You’re right!!** Ice “cubes” are no more cubes than my third nipple!!! Look at one for God’s sake. **Look at it!** They’re **not** perfectly square by any stretch of the imagination!! They’re rectangular solids! > Oh faithless lying world!! Your hellish geometrical lies consume me with the rage of 10,000 white hot suns!! HOWWWWWLLLLL!! ARRRGGGHHHH!!! \*\* It’s worse than that. My ice cube trays have non-parallel sides (they tilt slightly outward). And they’re not truncated pyramids, because only one of the side faces is slanty. The other three are straight-up-and-down. All four sides meet each other at 90 degree angles. The top and bottom are rectangles and are parallel to each other, only three of their sides meet with the vertical pieces at 90 degrees. The fourth juncture is about 85 degrees. So what are they? Solid trapezoids? Let’s not even talk about the ice cubes in the corners of the tray. Their one rounded side makes my brain hurt. Let’s just throw those straight into my cup of tea to cool it off. ---
**Author:** ![Shade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2002, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starburst-arent-cubes/144126/38 "2002-12-22T16:56:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by friedo \* > \*\*Is that like a New York Minute?😃 \*\* Yes. For the really interested, the distance between two points isn’t the length of a line joining them, but the length of a horizontal and a vertical (or n/s and e/w) lines joining them. Say I start here and end up 3 blocks north and 4 blocks east. On a plain (or plane) I’ve gone 5 blocks, but in a city where I can only go n/s or e/w I’ve gone 7 blocks. ---
**Author:** ![Craneop2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6bbea6/32.png) [@Craneop2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Craneop2)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2002, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starburst-arent-cubes/144126/39 "2002-12-23T02:19:30Z")
Umm… Sorry but my current starburst no longer is a cube OR a rectangle. It now resembles a relief map of the snake river canyon complete with a tiny Evil Knevil parachute indention!! ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2002, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starburst-arent-cubes/144126/40 "2002-12-23T19:07:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Beeblebrox \* > \*\*I think you are mistaken in assuming the good people at Starburst are reffering to geometry. The original starburst used a measurement known as “flavor” (fl) to quantify the amount of fruit based enjoyment. With the splitting of the atom, the Starburst scientists were able to increase the amount of enjoyment to 2fl. This was revealed to the public in the radio campaign: “Starburst: the weight’s 2fl”. The public, who are drooling morons, misunderstood and heard “Starburst: the way to flavor” > > Subsequent advances in computerization raised enjoyment to fl[sup]2[/sup] and is the flavor level most of us grew up with. The public, who are drooling morons, thought this refered to the oblique. Recent breakthroughs in cloning and signal transduction have enabled the starburst scientists to raise the quotient yet again to its current fl[sup]3[/sup]. The public, who are drooling morons, has misunderstood this advance in quantum flavor packing. Starbursts no longer possess a squared flavor level. They are now cubes. They are still, of course, three dimensional as the hypothesized multidimmensional super candy is still nothing more than science fiction. \*\* what he said [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starburst-arent-cubes/144126.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starburst-arent-cubes/144126.md?page=3)