A piece of leather, a chain and a coffee mug-sized elevator is all you need for a no-spill coffee solution. You may have noticed coffee sloshes at a different rate than most liquids, making it more prone to slosh outside your favorite Sasquatch Coffee mug. Worry no more, some nerds figured out a way to reduce the lateral accelerations in your coffee mug so you can savor your favorite blend of Sasquatch Coffee. Read an excerpt below.
How Does It Work?
To understand the Möbius Strip Coffee Cup Carrier, we must first consider why liquids spill. The physics behind sloshing coffee is complex. Not only is an intricate interplay of accelerations, torques, and forces at work, but the biomechanics of bipedal human motion come into play as well.
Researchers have found that the wave-like motion of coffee in a mug possesses a unique natural frequency that’s related to the size of the mug (see journals.aps.org/pre/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevE.85.046117). Typical coffee cups produce oscillations that closely match the motion a person makes when walking. If you walk, coffee cup in hand, at a steady and even pace, there’s no spillage. But even small irregularities in your gait cause breathtakingly complex accelerations of liquid that amplify the oscillations, leading to sloshing and ultimately, to stains on the carpet.
But add the Möbius Strip Coffee Cup Carrier with its kink-free handle, and the math becomes much simpler. Because the handle flexes easily, all forces acting on the coffee must act in line with the handle. As long as the handle stays taut, there are no lateral (that is, side to side) accelerations, and the forces acting on the coffee merely push it toward the bottom of the cup holder.
Need more nerdiness? Read how to make this yourself at http://makezine.com/projects/make-41-tinkering-toys/mobius-strip-coffee-cup-carrier/