How to empty the ketchup bottle every time and improve power plants too | Hacker News Reader

How to empty the ketchup bottle every time and improve power plants too

economist.com

71 pointschang230165 comments

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How to empty ketchup bottle 101:

- close the lid

- take the ketchup bottle in your hand holding it upside down, possibly covering the lid to make sure it stays closed

- swing your arm forwards-backwards rapidly

- ??? (let the physics do its job)

- ketchup!

You just need to close the lid to move the ketchup, the elaborate gyrations aren't really necessary. Maybe tap it gently on your hand or something.

Yeah, better change step 1 to "tightly close the lid". Else hilarity and big dry-cleaning bills ensue, as I learned the hard way.

>How to empty ketchup bottle 101

201 delves into the nuances

With glass ketchup bottles, holding it upside down, then lightly hitting the area where the neck meets the main body of the bottle, with your palm...works well.

I was told that part of the problem on a new glass bottle of ketchup is the surface tension at the top. So if you break the top layer with a knife or whatever the ketchup will suddenly start coming out. However I never looked up if it was true or not (surface tension) but it does appear to work albeit slightly unhygienic.

Use a clean knife.

The squeezable upside down ketchup bottles have already solved this to my satisfaction. I need someone to solve the other great issue our times, how to preserve the fizz in a 2 litre bottle of coke after you consume part of it.

That's been solve too, just not designed into the bottle; there are plugs that let you pump pressure back in the bottle.

https://www.amazon.com/JOKARI-5002-Jokari-Fizz-Keeper-Pump/d...

I don't really see this working. There's not enough CO2 partial pressure to maintain carbonation, and I really doubt there's enough air pressure in the bottle to force very much air into solution.

It does work. Been working for decades. :) You pump it until the bottle is firm and nearly unsqueezeable, and it keeps it fresh.

After pouring, crush the bottle enough to dispel most of the air so that the fluid is a few mm from the cap and replace the cap tightly.

This doesn't help at all, unless you take steps to keep the bottle from uncrushing as carbon dioxide inevitably comes out of solution. What does help is keeping your drink refrigerated, because gases dissolve better in cold water than in hot.

So if you do take steps to prevent the bottle from uncrushing would it work then? Some sort of a simple vice, perhaps?

Right, then as the carbon dioxide pressure builds, it'll reach equilibrium sooner, so not as much will end up out of solution.

Here's how I reasoned about this, but this isn't my forte and I'd welcome any corrections!

The pressure of gas in the bottle neck increases as degassing occurs but only until an equilibrium is reached. The equilibrium occurs at a pressure lower than that required to deform the tough plastic in the neck of the bottle and lower than that required to overcome the soft bottle body plastic connected by hydraulic advantage to the gas via the small cross sectional area of fluid in the bottle neck.

Not only this doesn't help, it makes it worse. As the bottle tries to recover it's original shape, it sucks the carbon out faster.

Not necessarily, if the bottle is very flexible.

If coke came in something like the boxes of wine that used to be around one time, They were in effect a bag of wine with integrated tap inside a rigid cardboard box. As you drew wine through the tap, the bag collapsed.

Those still exist.

Box wine is still a thing, although it's hard to find anything good in a box.

This probably won't work because the CO2 will just inflate the bladder after you pour your first drink. You'll end up with flat Coke and a bag full of CO2 by the end. Also, the cheap plastic valve would probably fail and start to leak if you put a carbonated beverage in there.

The typical bottles we have won't recover their original shape when crushed. They will attempt to reform slightly but only slightly.

I believe the pressure in any pocket of gas in the bottle would increase due to degassing of the fluid and this pressure would have a greater impact. Especially if that degassing was encouraged - e.g. shaking the bottle.

In contrast, I can't see that manipulating the bottle in an attempt to recover its shape would encourage further degassing.

Ah, that's easy: don't store carbonated drinks in the door of your fridge. Every time you open the door it shakes them and releases gas from the liquid. Try it!

Furthermore, the door is the warmest place in a fridge. The carbon dioxide will stay in solution better if the pop is kept colder.

Similarly, recap the pop and put it back in the fridge after pouring a serving.

Do the second best thing and build a small carbonation rig.

Sides of the tube being slippery would just cause a blob of ketchup to come out; worse case, if it was a hard cylinder with no inward facing lip and a release in the for the vacuum created by the ketchup in the tube, all of the ketchup would just fall out in the space of the cylinder.

Key to getting ketchup out is knowing it is a non-newtonian fluid:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-Newtonian_fluid

Specifically, it's shearing thinning: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shear_thinning

Few options are:

(1) Shake it a lot first, then pour;

(2) Jolt the bottle with a hard bump, then pour;

(3) Give it a little time in a single direction to get moving with the pouring end open and downward facing.

My favorite method is centrifugal; hold the bottle by the non-pouring end with the cap firmly tightened and give it a good fast swing with your arm (be careful not to break it on anything). This will move all the ketchup to the neck of the bottle (might require a few reps). Then, unscrew, and holding the bottle where you wish to dispense product, using your palm just above where your palm meets your wrist, tap firmly on the neck of the bottle just below (as the bottle is now facing downward, just slightly towards the open end) the curve onto the neck while shaking the bottle up and down, with an exaggerated downward "stabbing" motion.

I did something similarly clever when I was about 10. My parents still occasionally find a ketchup stain in some far corner of the kitchen or attached den.

Can it be used in inkjet printers to make printheads last longer and save the ink wasted on cleaning?

"lol" - printer manufacturers

With the advent of squeezable bottles the new problem is how to prevent the socially awkward squelching noise.

Talk to my 6-year old: that's a feature, not a bug.

I agree, but from a restaurant perspective. Hearing that distinct change in sound for a bottle that's being squeezed while empty can lead to a quick replacement by attentive staff.

I am reminded of my favorite poem[0]:

"Shake and shake / the catsup bottle / none will come / and then a lot'll."

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Armour

The articles about this guy come out every year. It always says they're "working with ketchup manufacturers". But the reality is that the ketchup companies already said "no, we don't want to put this in our containers because our customers go 'ick' when we do that".

It's like the gecko tape. Every year, press release about how it's going to transform the world then you realize it's still in the lab and the R&D companies don't want to touch it.

Tap the 57 while holding the bottle in the pour position. It really works. From the Heinz Trivia [0] page:

What's the best way to get Heinz ketchup out of the iconic glass bottle?

To release ketchup faster from the glass bottle, apply a firm tap to the sweet spot on the neck of the bottle— the "57." Only 11% of people know this secret. Now you're "in-the-know."

[0] - http://www.heinz.com/our-company/press-room/trivia.aspx

>Only 11% of people know this secret.

Sounds like a feature discoverability problem. Does Heinz have a UX team?

For something that is neither written on the bottle nor a popular cultural meme, 11% actually sounds implausibly high to me.

Hold the bottle upside down with the lid open facing the plate/sandwich, hit the bottle against the palm of your other hand https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4uqcC6rz2Q

Companies will look forward to using this, since it means that products (eg: toothpaste) will run out faster (probably due to people using more when it slips out easier), producing more demand.

Wouldn't it be just the opposite? If, say, 5% of the ketchup is currently left in the bottle when it's thrown away, that means customers who buy the new bottles will get 5% more usable ketchup for their money. As long as they're careful when pouring, they would have to buy new bottles less often.

I would imagine that in the sense of "usable product" for costumers, things will level out somehow.

But waste would certainly be lessened within certain steps of production. For example, sometimes you have containers used for long distance transportation, which you can't remove all of a product from, and you have to wash in between refillings.

*customer

Slightly reduce the amount of product in the bottle, then.

I can imagine how many applications there could be in more expensive products like makeup for example. Looking forward to have this in our daily lives :)

P.S.: "Open sauce operating system"... wat?

I use centrifugal force to empty bottles. It also works for ink pens, yoguhurt packages etc. Instead of shaking it, make whipping motions, or swing it, with the opening out. Just make sure the lid is on! You can also use a baking roller if it's a soft tube.

https://www.howitworksdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/F...

why is this down voted ?

> to steer the droplets around. One is to create new types of microfluidic devices—or labs-on-a-chip

So.... Theranos is less impossible?

The problem with Theranos isn't microfluidics and labs-on-a-chip, since lots of other people manage to use that successfully.

Rather, the problem with Theranos is that a small amount of blood from an extremity surface won't necessarily be representative and is easy to contaminate, so you can't get reliable data from it.

Plus, it's not necessarily a good idea to hire random people to run lab tests.

"Open sauce operating system"

I love the Economist.

Zen Option: Be patient. When the ketchup is ready to come out it will. Place it on the counter upside-down. Go do some gardening. Yoga. Meditate.

Physics Option: Centrifuge. Not only does it work, it's the law. Close lid firmly. Point the bottle down. Hold firmly. Spin in large circles. Switch arms if tired.

Physics Option, Extreme Edition: Grab 4 or 5 Walmart (or whatever) grocery bags. Place one inside the other to form one thicker, stronger bag. Place bottle in bag pointing down as much as possible. Remove people and animals from general area. Move way from hanging fans, lights, etc. Grab from handles and spin around at high speed. Works great for Mayo and most other higher viscosity bottled goods.

Environmental Option: The universe doesn't want you to consume this stuff any more. This was your last bottle. You are done. Post about it on Facebook.

Mechanical Option: Find a hydraulic press of at least 1 ton capacity. Place the bottle in it. You might have to sandwich it between two metal plates to cover the more of the bottle. Have the end point in the desired direction. Remove the cap. Squeeeeeeeeez while you catch the ketchup in a cup. Does not work very well for glass bottles.

Chemical Option #1: Place it upside-down in a bath of warm water. Should flow nicely after that. Or is that physics?

Chemical Option #2: Fill with water. Shake vigorously. Empty into sauce pan. Boil off water until desired consistency is achieved. Or, is that physics?

Pessimist Option: The bottle is empty. Forget it.

Optimist Option: Get a gallon jug of ketchup. Re-fill the small bottle. The bottle is full.

Aerospace Option: Place bottle upside-down on a vibration test fixture. Run through a full 6 minute simulation of an orbital launch mission.

Motorsport Option #1: Travel to local skid-pad. Get going as close to 1 g as possible. Point bottle radially outward.

Motorsport Option #2: Get in Tesla. Point bottle to the rear. Engage the most insane acceleration mode. Gun it.

Motorsport Option #3: Sneak into a crash test facility. Strap bottle to the car, point it forward. Conduct crash test against solid wall. Retrieve bottle while pretending to check sensors.

Baseball Option: Pitch the bottle. Have someone hit a home run. Does not work well for glass bottles. Does not work well, period.

Soccer Option: Strap bottle to ball. Have a player kick a penalty shot. Have them fall to the ground and pretend they are hurt for five minutes.

Golf Option: T-off and smack it with 9 iron. Will not work well for glass bottles.

Model Rocketry Option: Strap to rocket. Ignite.

For everything else there's Mastercard.

Most savory sauces

1) Add Vinegar

2) Shake

3) Pour

Off topic:

Would it be possible to submit links to walled off websites like the Economist as google searches? Maybe there could be a tick box that, when selected, made the link into a google search like this:

https://www.google.com/search?q=How+to+empty+the+ketchup+bot...

The 'web' link under the story does just that ;)

If this is the non-sticking coating thing behind the pay wall, here is an article from 2013 readable for everyone: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2356793/No-wh...

> For more than a decade Kripa Varanasi and his colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have been creating and studying slippery surfaces for use in industrial equipment such as steam turbines and desalination plants.

It is.

You're probably not British, so I'll point out that the Daily Mail is on par with Fox News.

Don't link to it.

I'm British so I'm biased, but while I hate the Daily Mail with a passion, I have also spent a lot of time in the US with Fox news constantly on in the break room, and the Daily Mail is nowhere near as bad. The amount of naked bias shown in your average 5 minutes on Fox is breathtaking to someone coming from the UK. The Daily Mail also makes some attempt to make sure that what it's talking about is in some way related to reality which is not a feeling I always have while watching Fox (particularly when Fox is talking about the UK).

Wow, I've just defended the Daily Mail. This is a weird feeling.

It is weird. There are effectively three sides bundled into the Daily Mail, and one of them is a genuinely there-with-the-news global reporting organisation (OK, so it's built on AP/Newswire, but usually a bit more informative).

The other two are the highly flamebait opinion columnists (Littlejohn, Hopkins) and the "women's" coverage for non-feminist women: celebrities, clothes, "sidebar of shame" and so on. The latter is hugely profitable and popular for some reason. A unique combination of slut-shaming while at the same time telling you where you can buy the outfit.

The latter two fund the reporting organisation. The Daily Mail are actually profitable, whereas The Guardian are struggling financially.

>The latter two fund the reporting organisation. The Daily Mail are actually profitable, whereas The Guardian are struggling financially.

The Guardian is financed by a trust. It doesn't necessarily need to be profitable.

However, yes, it is currently hemorrhaging money.

I think the latter two go hand-in-hand: Outrageous opinion pieces that get shared a lot attract people to the site, and then a sidebar of clickbait keeps people browsing.

Ah thanks. I came up with it googling the title. Wanted to know what it's about. It wasn't possible through OPs link.

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