The physics of making pancakes

[Schnitte]

Just in time for Pancake Day, his bit of news ran around the world of traditional cuisine yesterday.

Many Britons will celebrate Shrove Tuesday by flipping a traditional pancake but scientists think they have discovered the mathematical secrets of the pan.

The angular velocity of the object equals the square root of Pi, times the gravity divided by the distance the pancake is from the elbow times four - that is how to get the pancake back in the pan.

Now from all what I remember from school physics, I still can recall units must be OK at the end of a formula - after the calculation, the unit that comes up as a result of the calculation itself actually must be a unit for the varibale you wanted to calculate, eg it must be pounds or kilograms or grams or whatever, if the variable you want to calculate is mass.

Let’s give it a try. Pi, and also the square root of pi, is just a number, no units involved. Gravity is acceleration, m/s². Distance, and also distance times four, is m. Everything put together is 1/s².
That’s not a unit of velocity, as it should be if you want to use the formula to calculate how fast you have to swing your pancake up.

Anything wrong in my line of thought? How is this supposed to work?

[Chronos]

Well, the quote you have there specifies angular velocity, not linear velocity, and angular velocity has units of 1/s . If you assume that the “square root of” applies to the whole expression, and not just to pi, then the units, at least, work out. But I’m not sure if the formula is correct, or even what it means exactly. What object are they referring to, that we’re trying to find the angular velocity of?

[Uncommon_Sense]

*Originally posted by Chronos *
**Well, the quote you have there specifies angular velocity, not linear velocity, and angular velocity has units of 1/s . If you assume that the “square root of” applies to the whole expression, and not just to pi, then the units, at least, work out. But I’m not sure if the formula is correct, or even what it means exactly. What object are they referring to, that we’re trying to find the angular velocity of? **

Does this help?

[Schnitte]

Ah, I see. Thanks, Chronos! This has cleared up the affair.