How Vanilla and Chocolate Ice Cream Cones Transfer Onto Each Other When Touched Together

James of The Action Lab examined the science behind the viral phenomenon of two ice cream cones transferring both ways onto the other when touched together.

If you take a chocolate ice cream and a vanilla ice cream cone and touch them together, something really weird happens. The vanilla gets transferred onto the chocolate and the chocolate gets transferred onto the vanilla in the exact same spot. This feels impossible. How do both of them transfer material in the same spot? 

James looked at the difference between stirring and mixing. He also explained the physics behind gouging, which states that two materials can leave traces of each other on opposite sides simultaneously.

So instead of atoms diffusing together, the chocolate scoop rips a chunk out of the vanilla. And at the same time, the vanilla rips a chunk out of the chocolate. Those chunks get pressed onto the opposite surface at the same contact location. Both sides lose material and both sides gain material in the same spot. They’re not mixing. They’re taking bites out of each other.