When you’re boiling water for pasta, throwing a bit of salt into the water can help it boil a little bit faster–if only by a few seconds. With that, a white ring of salt deposits will often show up within the pan.

Physicist Mathieu Souzy of the University Twente was enjoying an evening of pasta and board games with several colleagues when the conversation turned to how adding salt to a pasta pot to make it boil faster can leave a white ring on the bottom of the pot.

If you've ever tossed a generous pinch of salt into your pasta pan's water for flavor or as an attempt to make it boil faster, you've likely ended up with a whitish ring of deposits inside the pan.

A note to readers • The second part of the season 5 reunion of “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” is scheduled to air on Bravo on Wednesday, Jan. 29, at 8 p.m. Eastern time — 6 p.m. Mountain time on DirecTV and Dish, and 9 p.m. Mountain time on Xfinity. (The show streams the next day on Peacock.)

T he Season 5 Reunion of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City promises to be a whirlwind of emotions and confrontations. While the show focuses on the housewives, the husbands of