The Physics of Cutting Food

On Sunday, my family and I hosted a party for two visiting families (one from Canada and one from Texas) and predictably I got stuck doing kitchen chores. One of my kitchen duties included chopping up ingredients for a certain meal. While I was laboring away, I realized that, as always, physics is involved even in this menial task. While chopping carrots, for instance, I realized that Newton's Laws applied to the siutation. As I placed my pointer on top of the blade, I was applying a certain amount of force F that pushed the blade of the knife deep into the vegetable, thereby cutting it in the process. However, the force F that I applied was not constant. As each piece that I cut varied in size (and therefore mass), I applied a force in accordance to its mass. The smaller pieces were easier to cut (I applied less force) while the bigger pieces required more effort (I applied greater force). Additionally, I also did work (as afterwards my pointer felt numb after all the chopping) illustrated in the equation W=Fx.

Furthermore, while cutting food, I varied the way that I held my knife to cut the fod. For instance, when I cut carrots, I chopped with the blade straight down. However, when I wanted tomatoes in wedges, I cut sideways at an angle. The force that I applied sideways is greater  than the force that I applied straight down.