Lesson in Science

    I've been working this week in Raleigh and it's been a little cold.  On my way home I stopped to get a cup of coffee to take the chill off.  I have a large insulated cup which I use most of the time.  I've spilled too many cups of hot coffee in my lap so I normally put a small amount of ice in the cup so I don't have to wait for it to cool off but today I didn't.
   As I was driving down the road I took a sip and realized that it was still about 400 degrees.  It just hadn't cooled down at all.  Then I got this bright idea or so it seemed at the time.  I rolled down the window and stuck out the cup of hot coffee.  I thought the cool air would do the trick.  Do you have any idea what happens when you stick a cup of coffee out of a car window at seventy miles an hour?  I do now and I'm sure that my friends who are science teachers do too.  It was truly an amazing thing to watch.
   It was as if a tiny tornado touched down on that coffee cup.  In a spit second the entire contents was sucked from the cup and there suspended in mid air was a cup of coffee without the cup.  In another split second the coffee realized three things.  It was no longer in a cup and it was going seventy miles per hour.   Oh and the third thing it realized was that the window was open and that's right where it headed.  In another split second I was wearing that cup of coffee.  I don't know what the speed of light or sound is but I do know what the speed of coffee is.  Thank goodness it had cooled down a bit.  So much for bright ideas!

                                                          Caffeine Carl
                                                          aka Kava Carl