Sometimes my knowledge of trivia amazes even me.

[dianec42]

Apparently at least two of my cow orkers have ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW why, if you microwave a mug of water and then put a tea bag in, the water fizzes and bubbles madly.

Now they know, because I gave them the full physics explanation of it, complete with liberal usage of the phrase "nucleation sites".

Apparently this made several people's day. It certainly made mine.

(As a bonus, I never actually make tea that way.)

Comments

[randomposting.livejournal.com]

Trivia rocks. :)

[dianec42.livejournal.com]

I didn't actually know that I knew it. That was the cool part.

"Wait, I know this! Wait, no I don't. Hang on a minute...."

[randomposting.livejournal.com]

lol! I love it when things pop out of the ack of your mind like that.

[dianec42.livejournal.com]

For anyone who's curious, the explanation I gave is pretty much the one given here: http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_111.html (but with a tea bag instead of Sweet-n-Low, and with copious hand-waving.)

[randomposting.livejournal.com]

Fascinating!! Thank you! :)

[dianec42.livejournal.com]

Also, although I definitely got the phrase "nucleation sites" from reading too many Straight Dope columns, I hadn't read that one particularly recently. So it really was pretty much off the top of my head. That's why I'm so pleased with myself.

[randomposting.livejournal.com]

It's quite impressive! :)

[scooterbird.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that one always bugged me, and I knew the answer to it, too. Couldn't explain it very well, though.