When a vase crashes to the floor, it seems like pure chaos—shards of every size flying across the tiles. But one physicist says that beneath this apparent randomness hides a remarkable mathematical pattern.
We’ve all dropped a plate or a glass and watched it explode into dozens of fragments. Those uneven pieces, it turns out, reveal a fascinating secret. Physicists have been studying the phenomenon not only out of curiosity, but also because their findings could help reduce energy use in heavy industries like mining or even improve how we predict landslides. What they’ve found is striking: no matter what object breaks, the distribution of fragment sizes follows the same rule. Surprising, right?
Chaos within boundaries
That discovery led researchers to suspect the existence of a universal law of fragmentation. To explore it, a physicist at Aix-Marseille University proposed that when an object breaks, the most probable outcome is also the most chaotic and irregular—what he calls the principle of “maximum randomness.” Nature, after all, tends to follow the path of least resistance.
By combining a conservation law with a maximal randomness condition, unifying principles governing solid fragmentation emerge
Letter: https://t.co/N6varjKICw
Viewpoint: https://t.co/rSesp2lc4F pic.twitter.com/GXggRa5bag
— Physical Review Letters (@PhysRevLett) November 26, 2025
But as the physicist explained in Physical Review Letters, even chaos has its limits. His theory includes a conservation law that keeps the overall structure of the fragments in check—meaning the total ratio of large to small pieces doesn’t change randomly when something shatters.
A beautiful law, but not universal
Emmanuel Villermaux’s new fragmentation law fits neatly with decades of experimental data across all sorts of materials, even liquids. It has successfully predicted how a crushed sugar cube breaks apart based on its three-dimensional shape.
Still, the law only works when the object fractures suddenly and randomly. For softer materials—like some plastics—the results don’t quite match reality.
Nathalie Mayer
Journalist
Born in Lorraine on a freezing winter night, storytelling has always inspired me, first through my grandmother’s tales and later Stephen King’s imagination. A physicist turned science communicator, I’ve collaborated with institutions like CEA, Total, Engie, and Futura. Today, I focus on unraveling Earth’s complex environmental and energy challenges, blending science with storytelling to illuminate solutions.