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The Rest Is Science

The Elegant Laminar Flow Of Moroccan Tea

4/15/202641 min

Does a teapot secretly hold the laws of physics? And what do soap, sugar and mint have to do with the perfect cup of tea?

Whilst in Morocco, Professor Hannah Fry takes Michael Stevens (VSauce) into the surprising science of mint tea, from foamy bubbles that trap desert sand to the elegant S-shaped spout that appears to solve some of the hardest problems in fluid dynamics.

Plus, your questions, including whether rising sea levels could change how your eggs boil, and just how much of Earth humans have actually touched.

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Clips

Ancient teapots beat equations
Why the S-shaped spout matters
Foam as desert dust filter
Design without equations
Folk physics and natural selection
Only 5% touched by feet
Sea level thought experiment
Have we really touched Earth?

Transcript preview

First 90 seconds

  1. Michael Stevens· Host0:01

    Hello and welcome to Field Notes. Here at The Rest is Science, Field Notes is our little exploration diary. Do you like calling it that, Hannah?

  2. Hannah Fry· Host0:09

    You know, exploration of the mind, I'm okay with that.

  3. Michael Stevens· Host0:13

    For me, it's more of a show and tell, because you are here today to show us something very cool about tea, and I don't know what it is. It's not my exploration, it's your, it's your reveal.

  4. Hannah Fry· Host0:25

    It's your exploration into my mind.

  5. Michael Stevens· Host0:28

    That's right. I will be exploring your mind while you spill the tea, as they say, or used to say. Um, and later on we'll answer some questions from you guys, which you can always send to us at therestisscience@goldhanger.com. Please keep them coming in because there's some awesome stuff.

  6. Hannah Fry· Host0:43

    Yeah. We've switched the episode upside down today because, I'll be honest with you, I, um, I'm on holiday in Marrakech, um, staying at La Mamounia, this beautiful hotel, and I have become completely obsessed with Moroccan teapots. And, uh, and so I've insisted, I've insisted basically that that's where we start. Let me just, um, let me just go and get this, go and get this tea sitting behind me. Hold on one second. [Instrumental music] This episode is brought to you by Cancer Research UK.

  7. Michael Stevens· Host1:14

    If you wanted to type out the entire human genome, you would have to type at 60 words a minute for eight hours a day for about 50 years. Okay? That's the scale of the DNA rule book inside each one of your cells,

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