[niccl]

I'd really like to see a citation for 25 Hz. It feels to me like a decimal point might be missing. And how does the knife moving at twice the frequency of the vegetables being cut work? do they do two complete cycles of the knife for every cut of the veges? that's not what I've seen watching cooking shows (which might not be the best thing to watch for this to be seen, of course)

[tempestn]

Hz vs kHz. Your parent's point is that the knife is vibrating far faster than even the fastest chefs would be slicing.

[oofbey]

25 chops per second would be EXTRAORDINARY. Possible? Probably but only with super elite training. Most competent home chefs can probably do 5 Hz and probably struggle to get to 10 Hz.

[mminer237]

The fastest button mashing record appears to be 16 Hz, so I definitely do not believe it is possible to chop with a knife in the double digits.

[0xbadcafebee]

Can somebody count Jacques' garlic chopping speed then? Perhaps someone younger than 80 could do it faster? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3ENOZgEqXg#t=1m20s

[lkbm]

Looks like around 12Hz, counting the forward rock and back rock as distinct chops. I'm not sure a rocking motion is what people mean here, though. This only works for mincing something you've already cut up, not slicing an onion.

[0xbadcafebee]

Maybe the solution is an ultrasonic slap chop? (https://www.amazon.com/Slap-Chop-Stainless-Vegetable-Accesso...) Many slices at once, preserve whatever the ingredient is without crushing it, doesn't stick to the blade. It may sound ridiculous, but if it makes kitchen prep easier and faster, I might cook more.

[scythe]

The sixteenth notes in "Crazy Train"[1] are nominally 552 per minute, or 9.2 Hz. Moving a knife at 10 Hz is probably very difficult. I would expect 2-3 Hz is a normal pace for a skilled knife user and 4-5 Hz is showing off.

1: https://youtube.com/watch?v=tMDFv5m18Pw#t=0m32s

[superkuh]

Cerebellar oscillation (in the inferior olive) gate motor control interrupt speed and are generally limited to ~10 Hz in humans.

[john_minsk]

That escalated quickly. Thank you!

[pixelfarmer]

Which is why humans use tech and tricks to get things done. Gravity Blast is one example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ir_KZNsTNiQ