Philosophy
December 10th, 2013
Food & Drink
Here’s a quick scenario for you. You’ve poured yourself a fresh cup of black coffee, and you want to keep it hot until you’re ready to drink it. Are you making a mistake by adding cream to that coffee? Does coffee with cream cool faster than black coffee left alone? Intuition says yes. The laws of physics lead to a different conclusion.
Last year, the web site Modernist Cuisine gave three reasons why “coffee with cream cools about 20% slower than black coffee” alone. To summarize:
1) Black coffee is darker, and dark colors emit heat faster than light colors. As such, “by lightening the color of your coffee, you slow the rate at which it cools,” if only slightly.
2) The Stefan-Boltzmann Law (apparently) says that hotter surfaces radiate heat faster? than cooler ones. So if you add cream to a cup of black coffee, it might lower the temperature of that cup of coffee. However that cup could still cool at a slower rate than a cup of hot black coffee.
3) Finally, and perhaps most importantly, “adding cream thickens the coffee (adds viscosity), so it evaporates slower.” And, in turn, less heat gets carried away by the evaporation.
To top things off, Modernist Cuisine also produced a video showing cream being poured into coffee in super slow motion. Even if you don’t care to consider the physics of coffee & cream, it’s pretty cool to watch an average cup of joe getting turned into a roiling sea.
- Good Ice Cream=good Politics -- A Wildly Hasty Generalization
A generalization from two data points: (1) Ben and Jerry -- morally good guys, great ice cream (new flavor -- bananas on the rum is bananas foster in a cone and outstanding. Well worth the calories.) (2) Margaret Thatcher -- it's a little known fact...
- Great...hyper Astronauts High On Coffee
"Coffee on its way to space station, made by ISSpresso coffee machine (really)" by Trevor Mogg June 16th, 2014 Digital Trends After a hard day’s space walking, astronauts would probably love nothing more than to strap themselves securely into their...
- Lab Glassware Makes Coffee...yeaaaaaaaaaa!
This is cool, but unfortunately, it is a prototype and the designer is looking for some backing to market this unusual coffee pot. "Coffee Maker That Looks Like It Comes From A Chemistry Lab" The Café Bala-o is a coffee maker that'd look right...
- A Robot Coffee Maker...yep, That's How It Was Advertised
Magic Folks!......nothing less! The Coffee Robot makes the most delicious drip coffee you ever drank, making it right every time....stirring, brewing, shutting off current, keeping coffee hot every step is automatic! Then, too, you do not have to...
- Java, Joe, Lifer Juice...instant Coffee And Satori Kato
Still tastes like sludge. In 1903, the first U.S. patent for instant coffee was issued to Satori Kato of Chicago, Illinois. It was entitled "Coffee Concentrate and Process of Making Same" (No. 735,777). The application was filed 17 Apr 1901, in which...
Philosophy
Morning: Just the java please and now and then some 1/2&1/2...physics later
"The (Beautiful) Physics of Adding Cream to Your Coffee"
December 10th, 2013
Food & Drink
Here’s a quick scenario for you. You’ve poured yourself a fresh cup of black coffee, and you want to keep it hot until you’re ready to drink it. Are you making a mistake by adding cream to that coffee? Does coffee with cream cool faster than black coffee left alone? Intuition says yes. The laws of physics lead to a different conclusion.
Last year, the web site Modernist Cuisine gave three reasons why “coffee with cream cools about 20% slower than black coffee” alone. To summarize:
1) Black coffee is darker, and dark colors emit heat faster than light colors. As such, “by lightening the color of your coffee, you slow the rate at which it cools,” if only slightly.
2) The Stefan-Boltzmann Law (apparently) says that hotter surfaces radiate heat faster? than cooler ones. So if you add cream to a cup of black coffee, it might lower the temperature of that cup of coffee. However that cup could still cool at a slower rate than a cup of hot black coffee.
3) Finally, and perhaps most importantly, “adding cream thickens the coffee (adds viscosity), so it evaporates slower.” And, in turn, less heat gets carried away by the evaporation.
To top things off, Modernist Cuisine also produced a video showing cream being poured into coffee in super slow motion. Even if you don’t care to consider the physics of coffee & cream, it’s pretty cool to watch an average cup of joe getting turned into a roiling sea.
- Good Ice Cream=good Politics -- A Wildly Hasty Generalization
A generalization from two data points: (1) Ben and Jerry -- morally good guys, great ice cream (new flavor -- bananas on the rum is bananas foster in a cone and outstanding. Well worth the calories.) (2) Margaret Thatcher -- it's a little known fact...
- Great...hyper Astronauts High On Coffee
"Coffee on its way to space station, made by ISSpresso coffee machine (really)" by Trevor Mogg June 16th, 2014 Digital Trends After a hard day’s space walking, astronauts would probably love nothing more than to strap themselves securely into their...
- Lab Glassware Makes Coffee...yeaaaaaaaaaa!
This is cool, but unfortunately, it is a prototype and the designer is looking for some backing to market this unusual coffee pot. "Coffee Maker That Looks Like It Comes From A Chemistry Lab" The Café Bala-o is a coffee maker that'd look right...
- A Robot Coffee Maker...yep, That's How It Was Advertised
Magic Folks!......nothing less! The Coffee Robot makes the most delicious drip coffee you ever drank, making it right every time....stirring, brewing, shutting off current, keeping coffee hot every step is automatic! Then, too, you do not have to...
- Java, Joe, Lifer Juice...instant Coffee And Satori Kato
Still tastes like sludge. In 1903, the first U.S. patent for instant coffee was issued to Satori Kato of Chicago, Illinois. It was entitled "Coffee Concentrate and Process of Making Same" (No. 735,777). The application was filed 17 Apr 1901, in which...