DAN PASHMAN: Biting
into a sandwich
should be cause for
celebration, but it
can also lead to disaster.
I'm going to show you how to
build a sandwich the fillings
never fall out, using
an old friend of mine
I like to call science.
[music playing]
 Joining me now is scientist
and comedian, Tim Lee.
Hey, Tim.
- Hey, Dan.
 Tim, why don't
ya do me a favor
and press down on this sandwich
to simulate bite force.
Let's see what happens.
Slippery sandwich fillings.
Such an issue.
I call this the Sliced
Cucumber Conundrum.
[ding]
 So what can we do to
make our sandwiches better?
 What you want
is a sandwich that
has a lot of resistive
force to that pressure,
a lot of friction.
[ding]
For a sandwich, what we're
looking for is ingredients
with very high static friction.
 Are there certain
greens, you think,
that would have extra friction?
 Yeah, there are certainly
greens that have a higher
coefficient of friction.
Ones that come to mind are
like arugula and frisee.
DAN PASHMAN: Why?
TIM LEE: Rougher surfaces
tend to have a higher
coefficient of friction.
And those are just greens
that have rougher surfaces.
 I'm going to
show you something
I've come up with that I
think you're going to like.
It's called the Silver
Lining of Greens.
The most slippery of
common sandwich ingredients
are cucumber,
tomato, and avocado.
First thing I do is mash up the
avocado and use it as a spread,
because it's less
slippery that way.
After that, don't bunch up
all your sandwich greens
in one spot in the sandwich.
Instead do thin layers
of greens throughout.
That creates friction
between each layer.
[ding]
 So Tim, we have the
sandwich that I made using
the Silver Lining of Greens.
I put it on softer bread,
which requires less bite force.
Should we go ahead and, rather
than simulate bite force,
give it some real bite force?
 Oh, yeah.
I've been waiting for this.
 All right.
[music playing]
DAN PASHMAN: Mmm.
TIM LEE: That's good design.
 You like that?
See where it holds
together so nicely?
Well, Tim Lee,
thank you very much.
And thank you also to friction.
DAN PASHMAN: Check
out my podcast.
It's called The Sporkful.
Subscribe today.
