The Physics of Coffee Cups

You pour a cup of coffee at the coffeemaker, then you carry it to wherever you are going to drink it. You are liable to get some dribbles on your clothing or on the floor. I don't have that problem because my coffeemaker's carafe is also a vacuum bottle and I take the whole pot to my desk. Scientists, on the other hand, often must share a coffeemaker, so they have spent a lot of time studying the physics of coffee, coffee cups in particular, to figure out why they are so prone to spillage. If this video has your eyes glazing over at the science, get another cup of coffee and stay with it, because she also tells how to keep your coffee in its cup. There's a 32-second skippable ad at 3:45. (via Metafilter)