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Story summary
- Researchers identified a universal law governing how brittle objects fragment when broken.
- Emmanuel Villermaux of Aix-Marseille University derived an entropy-based equation predicting fragment-size distributions.
- His analysis shows glass and ceramics follow the law, yielding consistent distributions.
- The equation does not apply to uniform fragmentation or to interacting fragments.
- Experts say the study could inform industrial processes and safety for climate-related rockfalls and researchers plan to study fragment shapes.