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SUMMARY— A model system is described which closely represents the deformation of a food as it is squeezed in the hand. The model consists of a set of true springs of differing heights and with differing Hooke's constants arranged in parallel. One or more springs are required to represent a given food depending upon the degree of curvilinearity of the force‐compression curve of the food. No dashpots are needed in this simple model. The one restriction on the model is that it is intended to represent the physical response of the food to a single compression. A graphical method for measuring the number, size and Hooke's constants of the springs in the model is described. The spring model shows that with some foods at least, small compression forces measure differences in softness better than large forces.
Malcolm C. Bourne (Fri,) studied this question.