[Magdalen] Coffee Cups vs Wine Glasses

[Jay Weigel]

The waitperson's secret to not spilling is this: NEVER look at what you are
carrying. Look at where you are going with it, and if you are descending
steps with it, at your feet. I have followed this rule since I first
started carrying drinks around Glen & Ann's of blessed memory, and it works.


On Tue, Sep 6, 2016 at 1:16 PM, Marion Thompson <marionwhitevale at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Assuming reasonable care when carrying each around, I am guaranteed to
> slop the coffee and virtually never slop the wine. That handle on the side
> of the coffee cup/mug easily allows a lopsided situation.  It's harder to
> hold the coffee mug straight and a lot easier to slop it when walking.  I
> think simple harmonic motion kicks in here, too.  The wine glass is held by
> the stem from below, a surer grip.  Also, the level of wine in the wine
> glass typically is not as high relative to the container so there is more
> 'side' above the wine level to contain the wine.
>
> The wine is definitely more stable when you're carrying it. Placed on the
> table, I can knock each over with great ease.
>
> Marion, a pilgrim
>
>
> On 9/6/2016 2:04 AM, Allan Carr wrote:
>
>> Apropos of nothing much, I used to walk from office to office, or around a
>> factory floor, with a coffee cup perpetually in my hand. From time to
>> time,
>> i'd spill some of the coffee. Now it comes out that if I'd kept my coffee
>> in a wine glass, my tendency to spill would have been far less. It's
>> proved
>> by actual experiment by a South Korean physics student http://
>> tinyurl.com/jh9yr2w
>>
>> I always thought the shape of the wine glass had more to do with sniffing
>> the wine, but maybe stability is more important to people somewhat under
>> the influence.
>>
>> However, it looks to me that both the cup and the glass are half full in
>> the experiment. My coffee cup is usually full (it generally gets cold
>> before I drink much of it) and my wine glass (at least with red wine) is
>> less than half full. I think that's why I spilled far more coffee in my
>> lifetime than wine, although if you add in all the wine glasses I knocked
>> over on the table, maybe it comes out about even.
>>
>> Anyway, how many of you (like me) would have picked the wine glass as
>> having less stable liquid, because of the way it sloshes around in the
>> round container?
>>
>>
>