Old Fashioned Coffee

Jun 03, 2023

We have a non-automotive puzzler for you all today. 

This one is about coffee, not about cars. 

Here we go.

I like to make my coffee in the morning the old-fashioned way. 

I still use a percolator. None of these K-cups, espresso machines or drip stuff with timers and internet connections. None of that. I just like the pure bubbling coffee that comes from a percolator.

Anyway, imagine you use a percolator too. You're getting up in the morning, getting ready to go to work. You've made yourself a boiling pot of coffee. And as soon as it finishes its last perk, you remove it from the stove. And while it's still boiling, you pour yourself a cup. It's probably on the verge of boiling and still 210 degrees. Very hot. You realize it's too hot to drink. And as luck would have it, you have to go and shave. 

So, you got 5 minutes in which to shave, while you're coffee is still boiling hot. And you like to put cream in your coffee. So here is the question.

Do you take the cream and put it in the coffee now, while you go shave, as the coffee is boiling hot? Knowing that the cream will start to cool off the coffee now, while you're shaving. 

Or do you go and have your shave, and then when you returned, you put in the cream and stir it and drink it down?

Which scenario will make the coffee the coolest, so you can drink it after that 5 minutes?

Add cream and then shave for 5 minutes?

Or let it alone, shave for 5 minutes, and then add the cream?

Good luck.
 

Answer: 

Okay, here we go.

You would like to cool the coffee as much as possible during those five minutes while you're shaving. So, is it better to add the cream while its boiling hot, and then let it sit? Or is it better to let it sit for 5 minutes and then add the cream? Under which circumstances will it be cooler?

Answer.

It is better to wait the 5 minutes before adding the cream.

So in order to get the fastest cooling for the coffee, you want the greatest temperature difference between the hot stuff and the cold stuff.

So if you add the cream first, you lower the temperature of the coffee and this reduces the rate in which it cools down. So adding the cream first might lower the temperature somewhat at first, what you actually do is slow the cooling process completely. The temperature difference won't be the greatest if the cream is added early.

It is called delta T. Heat transfer equation. 

A real puzzler that time!

 

 


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