My Experience With Coffee
Science brain teasers require understanding of the physical or biological world and the laws that govern it.
A man in Alaska was watching a dog sled race and, since it was so cold outside, he decided to get some coffee. Upon returning to the race, he accidentally bumped into a woman and spilled the coffee towards her face. However, not a drop hit her or the ground. What happened to the coffee? The coffee did not freeze.
Comments
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Posted by on Apr 01, 2004 Why? |
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Posted by Palsha on Apr 01, 2004 I honestly don't know why. When I lived in alaska, I saw a broacast saying whenever the temperature reaches -30, throw hot water in the air and it vaporizes. It's actually pretty weird. The moment you toss the hot water in the air, it just steams in the air. |
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Posted by Palsha on Apr 02, 2004 I'm quite surprised the critics haven't come earlier. I won't keep my hopes up though, give it time. |
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Posted by Palsha on Apr 02, 2004 The smell of my trashcan is more entertaining than this teaser. |
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Posted by Rowsdower on Apr 05, 2004 That's pretty cool!  |
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Posted by Rowsdower on Apr 05, 2004 I meant the teaser, not your trashcan...  |
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Posted by od-1 on Apr 05, 2004 VERY INTERESTING. IT WOULD BE COOL TO FIND OUT WHY THIS HAPPENS...NO PUN INTENDED  |
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Posted by Alandreia on Apr 06, 2004 Very good, although I figured out the answer! |
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Posted by doggyxp on Apr 09, 2004 BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! That's cold! *shivers* I prefer my nice, warn, cozy house. |
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Posted by doggyxp on Apr 09, 2004 *warm (not warn) |
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Posted by Palsha on Apr 10, 2004 I actually just found an old picture of me throwing some hot water in the air as it turns to vapor. I used to live in alaska so I tried this experiement while my parents took the picture, so if anyone is curious as to what it looks like, I'll be glad to email them the pic! |
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Posted by bluetwo on Apr 16, 2004 here is an interesting link that discusses the phenomenon: http://blogs.msdn.com/aconrad/archive/2004/02/13/72504.aspx |
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Posted by hersheykiss8908 on Jun 27, 2004 that was tough! |
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Posted by rashad on Jul 04, 2004 OK that was really easy give me something i could really twist my mind within  |
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Posted by filetmerlot on Aug 10, 2004 my first thought that he bought some coffe that he had yet to ground. Therefore no drops hit her face or the ground, but coffee beans did. |
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Posted by dairycow7 on Aug 19, 2004 Yeah, I gifured it out. And Palsha if you wouldn't mind, I'd love to see that picture. Em |
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Posted by I_am_the_Omega on Oct 11, 2004 How could anyone "figure it out?" It doesn't even make sense. I guess I believe you, but still, it's not something anyone would figure out. Why don't you upload the pic to some webspace? |
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Posted by vikingboy on May 11, 2005 Being a northern myself, check my name, I have an issue with this one. They would never, never, never have a dog sled race at 30 below. Beyond being cruelty to the dogs, the sleds actually have trouble functioning at that low of a temperature. Skiing, skating and sledding all count on friction melting the ice, or snow, slightly to help the gliding motion. I have never heard of the vapor story, and it does get to 30 below where I live. Going to try it next winter!! |
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Posted by honker190 on May 21, 2005 I have a feeling that it's the same principle that makes water boil when you put dry ice into it. |
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Posted by honker190 on May 21, 2005 Of course i could be completely wrong. Just a guess. |
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Posted by drussel3 on May 31, 2005 My first guess was the coffee hit the snow and turned to ice then, it never hit the ground. Also, you never did say it was -30 degrees. |
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Posted by dutchymonster on Jul 28, 2005 Wow thats amazing I'd love to give that a try  |
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Posted by achnid on Nov 21, 2005 the colder the area outside the water is the faster water or other liquid will cool down. Now we all know that water evaporates to cool down mostly unless you put cold stuff into it. The trick is the greater the surface area is the faster evaporation will occur. When the water is thrown out of the cup it surface is greately expanded. Each little drop has a greater suface are for its size and evaporates faster. with it being that cold, the watter cools down faster, and to do that it evaporates at an even faster rate. so fast that by the time that it is cold enough to freeze, it has lost so much of the water to cooling down that you no longer recognize it for ice. |
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Posted by Vudluxi on Jun 01, 2006 Is this to do with the latent heat from hot water? My thermodynamics is long, long gone. |
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Posted by achnid on Jun 02, 2006 I'm just going with straight basic science. cold water is closer to freezing and has very little energy hat needs to escape for it to freeze. Hot water is full of energy and most of it needs to escape for it to freeze. the hotter the watter the faster the energy will escape. the faster the energy escapes the faster the water turns to steam and the faster it breaks up into smaller and smaller parts. you can try this with a stove and a pot of water and parental supervision/consent if under the age of 15. Put cold water in the pot and there will be no steam (water escaping) coming from the pot. put the pot on the stove and turn the stove on low. after a while you will see a little bit of steam coming from the pot. This is because the watter is heating up. The hotter the water is the faster the steam(water) will exit the pot. this is all basic science and needs no advanced form of science to understand. The only difference when the temperature is cold outside the pot is that the water will be able t escape faster. An added experiment to try is to take the same amount of watter and put it in a larger pot and see how much faster it heats up and evaperates. This is due to a larger surface area between the water and the heating surface the same thing comes into effect when you throw the water out of the cup. |
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