Armed Polite Society

Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: vaskidmark on May 31, 2012, 08:41:01 AM

Title: Research that has practical applicatioon - and was not grant funded
Post by: vaskidmark on May 31, 2012, 08:41:01 AM

http://volokh.com/2012/05/30/irish-scientists-solve-stout-mystery/

Scientists explain why bubbles in a pint of Guiness appear to sink - even before you take your first sip.

From the comments:

Quote

It wasn't so much that the bubbles "descending" in a nitrogen-aerated stout due to fluid dynamics was the mystery, but rather exactly why those flow dynamics occur in a pint glass to begin with. From the arXiv abstract:


Over the last ten years or so, physicists have begun to pick this problem apart. Most recently they've shown that it is not the bubbles that sink but the liquid, which circulates in a way that is downwards near the glass walls and upwards in the interior.  As long as the downward flow of the liquid is faster than the upward motion of the bubbles, they will appear to sink. 

But that still leaves a puzzle: why does the liquid circulate in this way?


That's the puzzle that the Irish mathematicians solved.

Seeing as this was science, one wonders at just how many instances were analyzed in order to be able to say the results were not merely the result of anecdotal observation?  It's dedication like that which will preserve science against the assault of pop culture.

stay safe.

Title: Re: Research that has practical applicatioon - and was not grant funded
Post by: Perd Hapley on May 31, 2012, 09:08:04 AM

Leave it to the Irish to find a way to do science without leaving the pub.

Title: Re: Research that has practical applicatioon - and was not grant funded
Post by: RoadKingLarry on May 31, 2012, 12:18:00 PM

Now that's a field of science I could get involved in.

Title: Re: Research that has practical applicatioon - and was not grant funded
Post by: 230RN on May 31, 2012, 01:59:54 PM

If it wasn't officially funded, it wasn't True Science.

Does it happen with champagne?  Club soda?

Title: Re: Research that has practical applicatioon - and was not grant funded
Post by: vaskidmark on May 31, 2012, 05:24:03 PM

Quote from: 230RN on May 31, 2012, 01:59:54 PM

If it wasn't officially funded, it wasn't True Science.

Does it happen with champagne?  Club soda?

Instead of asking fool questions, why are you not applying for grants to fund the research necessary to obtain the answers?  And would you need an assistant?

stay safe.