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riddles >> microsoft >> How are M&Ms made?
(Message started by: Your name here on Jul 30th, 2002, 5:01pm)

Title: How are M&Ms made?
Post by Your name here on Jul 30th, 2002, 5:01pm
A nozzle with a diameter of about 1/2mm squirts out a hot substance that, when cooled, forms the candy shell of the M&M.  The nozzle tip starts at rest, then begins moving in a gradually increasing circle until it is moving in a circle that is equal in size to an M&M.  The size of the circle then decreases until the nozzle tip is at rest again, then the cycle is repeated.

The hot substance comes out of the nozzle tip and forms the shell of the M&M, just like a pot can be made by coiling strings of clay one on top of the other.  Gravity pulls the shell away from the nozzle, and the equipment is calibrated so the shell is built up at the same speed it falls away.  (The speed of the nozzle rotation has to change  to match the accelerating speed of the falling shell.) When the circle grows from nothing to the size of the M&M, the bottom of the candy shell is formed, and as the circle shrinks the top of the M&M is formed.

A connected series of about 500 M&M shells is thus formed.  These long chains of M&M shells are sent to workshops in the developing world, where labourers saw them apart with jeweler's saws.  After sawing the shells naturally have holes in their tops and bottoms.  They are then mounted on a centrifuge and spun around their axis at high speeds while molten chocolate is injected into them.  The spinning action throws the chocolate out to the perimeter of the candy shell and keeps it from dripping out.  When the chocolate is hard, the M&M is removed from the centrifuge and the holes in the shell are filled and sanded by technicians trained in auto body repair.  The M&Ms are then spraypainted and the M&M logo is painted on with a very fine brush by children with extremely keen eyes.


Title: Re: How are M&Ms made?
Post by Alex on Jul 31st, 2002, 10:39am
Next time I eat an M&M, I will have a greater appreciation for it.

Title: Re: How are M&Ms made?
Post by Kozo Morimoto on Aug 1st, 2002, 3:37am
Very creative explanation!

But ...
http://www.mmmars.com/cai/mms/faq.html#how

Title: Re: How are M&Ms made?
Post by bartleby on Aug 1st, 2002, 1:11pm
I always assumed that M&M were made by first taking a large block of (low-quality) chocolate, and then giving it to an artisan with a chisel, who knocked away all the chocolate in the block that didn't look like an M&M center.   Then, the little M&M center is handed to another artisan who sands off the rough edges to smooth out the chocolate oblate spheroid.  These are then shipped to a company that makes billiard balls, who applies the shell with paint, and finished them with shellac.  Then the candy is finished by imprinting it with a "w", and turning the candy upside-down.

Title: Re: How are M&Ms made?
Post by jon_G on Dec 4th, 2002, 9:47pm
I figured the M&Ms were made from huge lakes of chocolate, which evaporated and formed huge clouds of chocolate and when these clouds got really dark you would hear thunder and the chocolate drops would fall(all the while being formed into a perfectly round and oval candy) into an area with many differently colored pools of candy coating. Then they were recovered by oompa loompas in a super clean area(like what was in willy wonka and the chocolate factory) Then they were put into huge bags which would go through a machine which would zap them into smaller bags, then they are sold 2 for a dollar at the corner store(all the while the customers not knowing what went into what they are eating). ;)

Title: Re: How are M&Ms made?
Post by venkat on Feb 5th, 2003, 12:55pm
I think we should better watch food networks unwrapped program. each week the program shows how junk food is made.  :)

Title: Re: How are M&Ms made?
Post by James Fingas on Feb 6th, 2003, 1:39pm
M&Ms are actually made by extra-terrestrial beings. No object of that perfect shape can be made on the planet Earth due to gravity. In fact, "M&Ms", as they are called, are not designed to be candies at all, but are intergalactic space vehicles manufactured in a distant part of the galaxy.

In the spaceship factory orbiting the planet Murango, the hull manufacturing dropper places a large sphere of brown inner hull material in the exact center of the spaceship creation area.

Next, three massively superconducting coils energize, distorting the space-time continuum to create a local gravity-like effect. These loops proceed to spin around the brown sphere, distorting its shape until it is within the specified tolerances of an intergalactic spaceship. Next, the inner workings of the space vehicle, along with the space craft's crew, are inserted into the center of the brown inner hull material. Since the brown hull material is still molten at this stage, the path of insertion closes as soon as the Mechanism Insertion Machine has completed its task.

Inside the inner workings of the space craft is a very small amount of matter at absolute zero. Due to a loophole in the laws of thermodynamics, a heat engine of 100% efficiency can be created using this matter as a heatsink. This heat engine absorbs heat from the brown inner hull material, cooling it until it solidifies, and charging the energy-storage coils inside the space craft.

The only task remaining is to attach the space craft's outer shell. First, the outer shell is created by suspending a small bubble of compressed gas inside a larger bubble of elastic outer-shell compound. When this bubble is put into the vacuum of space, the gas expands, enlarging the elastic outer shell. The outer shell is brought to the outer shell fabrication area, where it is gravo-stretched. When it has reached its proper shape (just large enough to fit over the inner shell), microwave energy is introduced into the outer-shell fabrication area, activating the catalysts contained within the outer-shell compound. In only a short time, the outer shell solidifies into a nearly impenetrable shield for the space craft.

The outer shell is then sliced into two pieces using a mono-molecular cutting tool. The two pieces are brought into the spaceship creation area, and positioned around the brown inner hull. Because of the exact fit attained with this process, molecular adhesion instantly joins the three pieces together, stronger than any imaginable joint.

The intergalactic symbol of peace is emblazoned onto the bottom of the space craft, indicating that the craft is not military in nature.

Now how the "M&Ms" get to Earth, and why they are called "M&Ms" is somewhat of a complicated story, that is best left for another time.

Title: Re: How are M&Ms made?
Post by simplicity on Feb 28th, 2003, 1:04am
;Dlol

Title: Re: How are M&Ms made?
Post by mike1102 on Jul 10th, 2003, 12:37pm
Once upon a time,..... In a galaxy far far away....... I think it was on a Tuesday if my memory serves me correct...... there was what has come to be known today as "dark matter". It was everywhere. It permiated the universe. And it was a huge problem: Nobody could see anything - It was just too dark. Then, those pioneers of experimental physics and pre-relativity culinary arts, Michelson & Morley, discovred this dark matter actually tasted very sweet. So they concieve a plan. They concocted a recipe that involved one part dark matter, and four parts ether (Don't try this at home) that simultaneously and completely eliminated the ether forever (they did save some for themselves of course), radically reduced the dark matter in the universe and spawned the entire junk-food industry just by packaging this stuff. When asked what this new taste delight was to be called they replied with the obvious, and the rest is history. - PS: feel free to pass this along to those cosmologists out there that haven't gotten the word yet.

Title: Re: How are M&Ms made?
Post by Simple Simon on Jul 31st, 2003, 3:57pm
You put "M" and "M" together  ;D

Title: Re: How are M&Ms made?
Post by wowbagger on Aug 1st, 2003, 1:23am

on 07/31/03 at 15:57:47, Simple Simon wrote:
You put "M" and "M" together  ;D

Shouldn't you put "M" and "&" and "M" together?  :D

Title: Re: How are M&Ms made?
Post by m+m lover on Nov 28th, 2004, 7:21am
but what makes them so dam nice, no one can answer that :)

Title: Re: How are M&Ms made?
Post by John_Gaughan on Nov 28th, 2004, 1:35pm

Quote:
but what makes them so dam nice, no one can answer that



Quote:
Very creative explanation!

But ...
http://www.mmmars.com/cai/mms/faq.html#how


From the web site: "The chocolate (or chocolate-covered peanut, peanut butter, almond and crispy) centers are color-coated by rotating them in a revolving pan, while a sugar and corn syrup mixture is added."

Chocolate coated in sugar and corn syrup. Chocolaty and sweet, what else do you need?

Title: Re: How are M&Ms made?
Post by answerman on Nov 29th, 2004, 10:53am
You sillies, M&Ms are naturally occuring fruit of the loom.

Title: Re: How are M&Ms made?
Post by Lewis Temple on Dec 4th, 2004, 11:36pm
M&M's are made the same way the W&W's are!

Title: Re: How are M&Ms made?
Post by Ani on Feb 8th, 2005, 8:52am
I have it on good athority that M&M's were made by throwing little chocolate peices through a waterfall of candy coating...but it's super fast drying coating so by the time the chocolates land on the otherside...they're dry and perfectly coated.  THEN they paint on the little m's or w's whatever!

Title: Re: How are M&Ms made?
Post by JiNbOtAk on Mar 25th, 2005, 9:12pm
I swore someone told me that those cute little things grows on tress...the M&M's company just harvest them from time to time.

Title: Re: How are M&Ms made?
Post by Elizabeth on Nov 9th, 2005, 3:08pm
Now, every time I eat an M&M, I'll look at ans say:

"Now I know how much trouble they go through just to show off how fabulous you are."

Thank you M&Ms!!

Title: Re: How are M&Ms made?
Post by Elizabeth Tyson!!! on Nov 9th, 2005, 3:24pm
[quote author=Elizabeth link=board=riddles_microsoft;num=1028073663;start=0#17 date=11/09/05 at 15:08:57]Now, every time I eat an M&M, I'll look at and say:

"Now I know how much trouble they go through just to show off how fabulous you are."

Thank you M&Ms!! :D  

Title: Re: How are M&Ms made?
Post by jwhooper on Apr 30th, 2007, 11:38am
I used to work for M&M, so I just happen to know this one:

Inside a cube of the hard candy shell material, powerful electromagnets create the ovoidly spherical magnetic fields that contain the antimatter particles which are then pumped in through a nanotube to create a perfect M&M void within by destroying all of the matter inside the magnetic field.

Naturally, chocolate molecules are far too large to flow down the same nanotube structure, so the atomic particles of the creamy milk chocolate center must be pumped in randomly and then assembled correctly by leaving corresponding entangled particles outside as a block of milk chocolate and then collapsing the wave function.

As you can see, many M&Ms can in this way be constructed inside a single hard candy shell block.  All that is left is to leave a perfect thickness of candy shell around each creamy milk chocolate center.

As you all have probably guessed already, this is done the easy way, by merely dropping the cubes into vats of genetically engineered microbes that thrive on hard candy shell, but are killed instantly by creamy milk chocolate, and so have evolved to stop a safe distance away (the perfect distance for the perfect hard candy shell).

Miracle candy that melts in your mouth but not in your hands does NOT grow on trees.  I'm tired of people saying this.  Only science can bring about such modern miracles.

Please, try to be serious.

Title: Re: How are M&Ms made?
Post by tiber13 on May 3rd, 2007, 5:23am
Ok first W&W's start with the shell. they pump liquid shell into a casing and centrificul force made by sugar crazed Umpa lumpas, and then squirt liquid sugar into the shells. more centrifical force and and a printing machine later the W&W's pop out and Land in bags. Everyon eats them wrong, they are W&W's!

Give or take a few ____'s .

Title: Re: How are M&Ms made?
Post by Jonathan_the_Red on Jun 6th, 2007, 5:07am

on 07/30/02 at 17:01:02, Your name here wrote:
A connected series of about 500 M&M shells is thus formed.  These long chains of M&M shells are sent to workshops in the developing world, where labourers saw them apart with jeweler's saws.


Okay, that made me laugh out loud. All I can say is that if M&M's aren't made this way, they should be.

I've both been the target and the inflicter of many, many Microsoft interviews. Questions like these are intended to give insight into the workings of a candidate's mind. YNH, I would hire you on the spot.

Title: Re: How are M&Ms made?
Post by Grimbal on Jun 6th, 2007, 7:20am

on 06/06/07 at 05:07:15, Jonathan_the_Red wrote:
YNH, I would hire you on the spot.

Why?  Just because he knows how M&M's are made?  :o

Title: Re: How are M&Ms made?
Post by BNC on Jun 6th, 2007, 9:46am
JtR! It's been ages!

Title: Re: How are M&Ms made?
Post by Sameer on Jun 6th, 2007, 12:39pm

on 06/06/07 at 09:46:57, BNC wrote:
JtR! It's been ages!


Yes indeed ... and the thing that lured him here? M&Ms... now we know what bait to use!!  ;)

Title: Re: How are M&Ms made?
Post by Jonathan_the_Red on Jun 12th, 2007, 5:08pm
Um, yeah. Hi, everybody. I actually returned from oblivion for three reasons: one, because I'm soon not going to be in a position to give torturous Microsoft interviews and will have to settle for giving torturous Google interviews, two, because the Google Puzzle Hunt is the weekend before I start at Google and I wanted to stretch my brain a bit in preparation, and three, because I've been wrestling with a really tough puzzle. It's probably more of a "problem" than a puzzle, and furthermore it's probably already been solved in academic papers, but I'd still like to get input from you guys. It's a longish and complexish puzzle so it'll take me awhile to get it into a form suitable for consumption

Title: Re: How are M&Ms made?
Post by Grimbal on Jun 13th, 2007, 3:24am
Goggle Puzzle Hunt?  Where?  When?   :) :) :)



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