If you break a piece of dried spaghetti, you will generally find that, instead of snapping in half, it breaks in two places and the middle section flies off across the room. This is because when you bend a piece of uncooked spaghetti, it does not usually break on the bend itself, although this is where the stresses are highest. Instead, it will break at a defect in the pasta near the to the bend where the combination of the stresses and the defects in the pasta reach a critical level. This will form a long piece and a short piece. The long side then snaps back but goes past its normal position, bending it in the opposite direction. Another defect on the long piece has already been stressed by the first bending and therefore breaks easily. The whipping motion of the spaghetti means that the small piece will continue in this direction and will therefore fly across the room.
Of course if the critical defect occurs right on the first bend, you will get two pieces but this is pretty rare. Go raid the kitchen cupboards and try if you don't believe me, just don't expect any help cleaning up afterwards...
