Coffee

23 Responses to Coffee

1. Eva Amsen says:

   30 April 2008 at 05:00

   In high school physics we spent one day in a computer lab to model how coffee cools down over time. The variables were room temperature, start temperature of coffee and probably different types of cups. The only thing I clearly remember from the whole experiment is: coffee gets cold if you leave it for too long.
   We could have done the experiment with real coffee in the cafeteria and learned just as much, but I guess there was some kind of required computer lesson in the curriculum.
2. Jennifer Rohn says:

   30 April 2008 at 06:53

   My mother always used to quote us this little saw:
   “The hotter body will get cooler – as a rule-r.” When I was a little girl I didn’t get it and thought she was referring to measuring instruments. No wonder I used to get into a muddle about thermodynamics.
3. Richard P. Grant says:

   30 April 2008 at 07:21

   Ooh – that’s Flanders & Swann
4. Henry Gee says:

   30 April 2008 at 08:42

   You beat me to it, Richard.
5. Chris Surridge says:

   30 April 2008 at 09:21

   and me.
   Damn, must be quicker.
6. Chris Surridge says:

   30 April 2008 at 09:26

   Talking of experiments with coffee:
   In my first year undergrad physiology lab we did an experiment using the class as subjects.
   Four Groups:
   1. Drank 500 ml of water every 15 mins for 2 hours.
   2. Drank 500 ml of black coffee every 15 mins for 2 hours.
   3. Drank nothing for 2 hours.
   4. Drank as much of 500 ml of salt water as they could stomach without vomiting every 15 mins for 2 hours.
   We measured the amount of urine produced by the subjects (us) over the 3 hour lab.
   It was a bonding experience more than anything.
7. Henry Gee says:

   30 April 2008 at 09:35

   Well, Chris? What was he result?
8. Richard P. Grant says:

   30 April 2008 at 09:39

   I want to know how he got ethical approval for that.
   Eight pints of coffee? I don’t drink that in a week.
   Well, OK, maybe a very bad week, but still.
9. Matt Brown says:

   30 April 2008 at 10:44

   “Coffee gets cold”
   I would guess that, at any given moment, only a fraction of one percent of the world’s coffee exists in its heated and hydrated state. The vast majority remains in powder/bean form, and has little interest in getting cold. Of the coffee that is introduced to hot water, only a small fraction will be neglected for sufficient time to go cold.
   So, coffee does get cold, but only in statistically insignificant proportions.
   In your face, entropy.
10. Bob O'Hara says:

    30 April 2008 at 10:55

    Matt – what about all that coffee that is shipped from tropical countries, where it is grown, to Europe and North America, eh? I reckon that has a cooling effect.
11. Matt Brown says:

    30 April 2008 at 11:02

    Cools, yes. But the original statement is ‘coffee gets cold’. It’s subjective, but I wouldn’t consider a drop of a few degrees as ‘getting cold’.
12. Richard P. Grant says:

    30 April 2008 at 11:04

    Perhaps you should re-read the original paper Matt? It’s quite apparent that the researchers studied ‘hot’ coffee.
    My News and Views article may have been incomplete: I blame space restrictions imposed by the Editrix.
13. Jennifer Rohn says:

    30 April 2008 at 16:45

    “Ooh – that’s Flanders & Swann”
    I’m an easy target: my knowledge of British culture starts in 1997. Mom must have got it off PBS.
14. Maxine Clarke says:

    30 April 2008 at 20:16

    Oh, the editrix gets slagged off over here in her supposed absence, does she? Ha!
    Well, if it does get cold at least you can warm it up in the microwave. Unlike tea. (Actually, since having children, I have discovered that you can in fact warm up tea in the microwave, heaven forbid.)
15. Richard P. Grant says:

    30 April 2008 at 23:43

    Ew. It’s not the warming of tea in the microwave that bugs me, it’s the making of tea in the microwave.
    You know: cold water, bag, nuke. shudder. It’s Boston Harbour all over again.
    (if tea in the pot gets cold – i.e. there is no milk in it – add ice and lemon for a refreshing drink)
16. Jennifer Rohn says:

    2 May 2008 at 23:22

    Excuse me: that’s Boston Harb*o*r to you.
17. Scott Keir says:

    3 May 2008 at 00:40

    Mmmmm…. superheated water
    Yum!
18. Richard P. Grant says:

    4 May 2008 at 08:00

    Here Jenny, have a spare ‘u’.
19. Bob O'Hara says:

    4 May 2008 at 09:20

    Is the cathedral in Boston, Ma. called the Boston Stmp?
20. Henry Gee says:

    4 May 2008 at 10:04

    No, that’s Boston Lincs, as you well know. Near Boston is a hamlet called Bunker’s Hill, and beyond that, en even smaller one called … New York.
21. Bob O'Hara says:

    4 May 2008 at 10:19

    Henry, the mis-spelling was deliberate. I wasn’t aware that there was a New York so close. Does it have any apple orchards?
22. Brian Derby says:

    4 May 2008 at 12:33

    Boston Harbour (Mass) and tea incident were pre Noah Webster and his attempts to rationalise English spelling rules: so do the u’s have it?
23. Richard P. Grant says:

    4 May 2008 at 12:37

    No, but the ‘z’s do. “Rationalize”, please (the ‘s’ is French. Check the OED).

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