Stories from October 2009

What’s physics got to do with it?

Institute of Physics News

22 October 2009

‘How do you make the perfect cuppa?’ and ‘Which biscuit will last the longest in the ultimate dunking challenge?’ are just two of the questions that pub and bakery customers will encounter on their beer mats and sandwich bags from today.

The Institute of Physics (IOP) initiative is running for the next four weeks in independent bakeries and pubs throughout the North East with the aim of igniting discussions about the physics of food and drink.

Based on research by physicists at the Institute of Food Research in Norwich, the questions, including ‘How does wearing lipstick affect your beer drinking?, aren’t immediately obviously about physics.  But by stimulating conversations, observations and in some cases even experimentation, the questions soon show what physics has to do with it. 

Pub goers are able to text to find out whether they’ve worked out the right answer while both drinkers and bakery customers are encouraged to go to www.physics.org/food-physics to discover more links between what we eat and drink and cutting-edge physics research. 

Caitlin Watson, Physics in Society Manager at the IOP, said “Many people think that physics was just something they had to do at school and is of no relevance to their lives. But by highlighting, in an entertaining way, how the food and drink that we all love is connected to physics, we hope to show that it is not only relevant but accessible to all.”

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