The Physics Behind the Design of a Typical Coffee Mug

Madelyn Leembruggen of SciShow explains how the design of typical coffee mugs is questionable at best, particularly since coffee has exactly the same resonance as a person walking. This means that coffee will slosh quite easily if not carried properly and the mug does nothing to stop the sloshing.

The average frequency of a person walking is typically about 1 - 2.5 steps per second... That's the exact resonant frequency of a typical coffee mug! Those small forces, at just the right time intervals,make the waves in the mug get taller and taller...Until you've got a big stain on your khakis.

Leembruggen also offers some suggestions to keep sloshing down to a minimum.

First, you could change your coffee order. A layer of foam on top of a beverage efficiently dissipates a lot of sloshing energy,preventing large waves from building up and eventually tipping over the edge. That's why a pint of beer is far less likely to slosh than a pint of cold brew. ...Or, here's an idea: We could just stop making mugsshaped in the exact way that causes resonance when we walk.

subscribe to the Laughing Squid Newsletter

The post The Physics Behind the Design of a Typical Coffee Mug was originally published on Laughing Squid.