Noodles in a Campbell's Soup

For Valor · Post by **For Valor** » Sun Dec 05, 2010 12:00 am

I heard a statistic that says "there are exactly 216 noodles in each can of campbell's chicken noodle soup".

Which I call bullshit on. Now, I'm not going to talk about how probability dictates that there is DEFINITELY a can out there with less noodles. I'm calling bullshit on the fact campbell's has some sort of 216-noodle counter.

I mean, there's a campbell's website for canada where it says that it produces 2.6 million cans per day. If you run the numbers, that's 30 cans per second. Even if they had 120 noodle-counters, they'd need to be count out 54 noodles every second. That is neither efficient, nor can it be that easy to control.

Anyone know anything I can use to further berate the person that told me this? Preferrably something to do with the argument at hand.

Lago PARANOIA · Post by **Lago PARANOIA** » Sun Dec 05, 2010 12:22 am

For Valor wrote: I mean, there's a campbell's website for canada where it says that it produces 2.6 million cans per day. If you run the numbers, that's 30 cans per second. Even if they had 120 noodle-counters, they'd need to be count out 54 noodles every second. That is neither efficient, nor can it be that easy to control.

If I was going to take a guess at what happens, they probably force uncooked/partially cookied noodle paste through a strainer, chop it at one or more points, then cook the noodles it in the can along with the broth at a later point in the assembly.

While you're right how it's almost impossible to ensure that every can has that many noodles, if you chop the noodle paste off a certain distance and make sure that the holes aren't clogged or anything you'd get a very consistent number of noodles. You don't even need to count them.

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Sun Dec 05, 2010 2:25 am

Would 216 noodles even actually fit into a can of that crap?

Josh_Kablack · Post by **Josh_Kablack** » Sun Dec 05, 2010 6:02 am

Dude, quit hating, buy a freakin can of soup for a buck or two and count the noodles for yourself.

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Sun Dec 05, 2010 7:08 am

Noodles are packed raw and cooked in the can. They are placed there by a machine that uses precise dimensions and weights for its operations. It's entirely possible for one noodle to break during this process, yielding two shorter noodles, but the starting material is 216 noodles.

-Username17

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Sun Dec 05, 2010 6:26 pm

Hey... I found this link {OK, Soup, Canada, Red, Trivia} from Campbells Canada that has random facts on the side of the page.

One of them:

Canadian Campbells wrote:There are 216 noodles in an average can of Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup.

So there you have it. The average can of Canadian Campbells Chicken Noodle Soup (presumably the same as the US) does have 216 noodles in it.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Sun Dec 05, 2010 11:23 pm

Maj wrote:Hey... I found this link {OK, Soup, Canada, Red, Trivia} from Campbells Canada that has random facts on the side of the page.

One of them:

Canadian Campbells wrote:There are 216 noodles in an average can of Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup.
So there you have it. The average can of Canadian Campbells Chicken Noodle Soup (presumably the same as the US) does have 216 noodles in it.

Or to translate it into real facts, the average number of noodles in a can is 216

Kaelik · Post by **Kaelik** » Sun Dec 05, 2010 11:26 pm

Prak_Anima wrote:Or to translate it into real facts, the average number of noodles in a can is 216

It is probably also true that 99% of all cans have 216 noodles, because as established, they put in that many solid noodles in one shove, then cook.

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Sun Dec 05, 2010 11:32 pm

Prak_Anima wrote:
Canadian Campbells wrote:There are 216 noodles in an average can of Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup.
Or to translate it into real facts, the average number of noodles in a can is 216

Those two things aren't the same at all. The average number of noodles would be the number of noodles in all cans divided by the number of cans. The number of noodles in an average can is the number of noodles that is in the most cans. Those two are totally different measures.

I'm sure the average value is actually more than 216, because noodles break more often than the machine fails to put enough weight of dry noodles into the can.

-Username17

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Sun Dec 05, 2010 11:36 pm

FrankTrollman wrote:
Prak_Anima wrote:
Canadian Campbells wrote:There are 216 noodles in an average can of Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup.
Or to translate it into real facts, the average number of noodles in a can is 216
Those two things aren't the same at all. The average number of noodles would be the number of noodles in all cans divided by the number of cans. The number of noodles in an average can is the number of noodles that is in the most cans. Those two are totally different measures.

I'm sure the average value is actually more than 216, because noodles break more often than the machine fails to put enough weight of dry noodles into the can.

-Username17

Alright... they're perceived the same to someone who didn't give enough of a shit about math to go beyond algebra 2.

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Mon Dec 06, 2010 12:18 am

So in math terms, the 216 statistic is the mode. Prak's rephrasing is the mean.

Yeah?

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Mon Dec 06, 2010 6:01 am

Maj wrote:So in math terms, the 216 statistic is the mode. Prak's rephrasing is the mean.

Yeah?

Yeah.