Scientists are concerned about spilled coffee, because long hours of research require coffee, and a spill can ruin your train of thought, if not your valuable notes. Mechanical engineer Rouslan Krechetnikov of the the University of California, Santa Barbara, and graduate student Hans Mayer did some experiments after noticing coffee being sloshed at a fluid dynamics conference (of all places).
Their advice? Don't walk too fast while carrying coffee, don't fill the cup to the brim, and watch what you're doing. There's more, which you can read at Science Now. Link -via reddit
(Image credit: H.C. Mayer and R. Krechetnikov)
Back at the lab, Krechetnikov and Mayer set up an experiment: They asked a person to walk at different speeds along a straight path with a filled coffee mug in hand. The volunteer did this in one of two ways-either focusing on the coffee mug, or looking straight ahead. A camera recorded the person's motion and the mug's trajectory, while a tiny sensor on the mug recorded the instant of spillage.
A fluid's back-and-forth movement has a certain natural frequency, and this is determined by the size of its container. In their paper published last week in Physical Review E, Krechetnikov and Mayer show that everyday mug sizes produce natural frequencies that just happen to match those of a person's leg movements during walking. This means that walking alone, without any other interference, is tuned to drive coffee to oscillate in a mug. But the researchers also found that even small irregularities in a person's walking are important: These amplify the wilder oscillations, or sloshing, which bumps up the chance of a spillage.
"This is a very cool study," says Lei Ren, a specialist in the biomechanics of walking at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom. "It reveals the sophisticated interplay between human body dynamics and the fluid mechanics of spilling coffee."
Their advice? Don't walk too fast while carrying coffee, don't fill the cup to the brim, and watch what you're doing. There's more, which you can read at Science Now. Link -via reddit
(Image credit: H.C. Mayer and R. Krechetnikov)
Comments (0)
Great ready btw.
Thanks!
Also, if France sucks, America blows.
So not really a suicide at all then.
btw the French loved me and my friends when we visited Paris and we're all Americans. If the French were rude to you, you're probably just stupid or obnoxious or something.
Also, if you go to Paris remember that their national language, with pride and dignity, is French. If you don't speak French, don't scream English at them.
I've traveled the world, and of all the cities I've visited (including remote places like Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia), Paris, France was the rudest and its people the most unhelpful.
grammar?well, lets judt consider that,man..take alook of the effort not that grammar thing..tsk tsk..
i love this place so much !
I feel fortunate because I speak English and French.
I love Americans and love French people.
I lived in Paris for one year and, man!, if you speak the language, even those who knows the basic,and explain your reasons they are very helpful. You have no idea how many times French people helped me.
But give me a break! I was walking one day and an American old lady started asking me in English, without even asking me if I speak English or not, informations about... I don't know what it was because I thought it was very rude of her not asking "Do you speak English?".
I told her in my language, Portuguese, I don't speak English or French.
It seems this old lady follows me because I was in my country and she came with a coke can and demanded me where on earth was the can recycle bin?
I'm sorry but I told her that in my country we don't have it and almost told her to get the can back to her country since it was her countries garbage she was holding.
lol
A friend of mine showed her where was the right garbage to put her coke can.
I don't like the when Americans like this old lady behaves this way.
I love Americans and have many American friends.
I am telling these stories just to say that this kind of generalization and stereotypes makes no sense.
I believe that some Americans will have this antipathy towards French people till the end of the times.
What about Germans? Polish or Russian people.
Oh! I am Brazilian.
I would like to inform you that our capital is Brasília and that samba has nothing to do with salsa or other Latin musics and dances.
:)
There are many things you don't know about Brazil and I also don't like the stereotypes.
Well, I believe that there are many errors for some readers amuse themselves and I will not read to correct them.
I loved the post.
I will copy the photo to my blog.
Thanks for sharing Alex!
:)
I forgot to tell her that colonialism did the same to indigenous people like they did in AMerica.
I am trying to acceesss:) the site to get the copyrights but it's not working anymore.
Pity!
As far as people go, I encountered many people all over Italy who lived up to the Parisiens' reputation for rudeness and intolerance, but the people I met in France were generally ok.
When I visit a foreign country, I do make it a point to learn how to say, "I don't speak [the language], do you speak English?" This backfired in Israel: several people responded to me in Hebrew anyway since I was speaking the language.