The World Wide Web is a valuable thing, indeed. Without it, how would we know that all the rules we’ve learned about eating hamburgers have been wrong, so wrong? Now we know, and from this moment on, you can save those delicious burger fixings from squirting unceremoniously out the back when you take a bite.

Our former siblings over at Kotaku cast their eyes all the way over to Japan, where a TV show called Honma Dekkai!? looked very seriously into the squirty-burger-stuff conundrum.

Researchers in fluid mechanics, engineering and dentistry came together in a scientific mind meld to solve the problem and came up with what seems to be a pretty easy solution (after four months of what we can only imagine was constant burger scarfing): It’s all in how you hold the burger.

Using 3D scans of burgers that showed how particles interacted in the eating process, researchers said that the usual hold — having just your thumbs on the bottom of the sandwich while the rest of your digits rest on top — will result in topping spillage.

So all you need to do is send your pinky fingers downstairs to help the thumbs, and voilà! Intact eating experience. That placement divides the burger into equal parts, allowing it to hold itself together better.

A potential downside? Once you’ve got the hands in the right position, you might not want to take them off your burger to say, grab a fry. Because you just don’t mess with perfection, unless you want a mess of burger insides on your plate. No one wants that.

The Perfect Way to Hold a Hamburger, Proven by Science [Kotaku]
ホンマでっか！？TV [FujiTV]

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