[CrackMonkey] Information Wants to Be Free

[Miles Nordin]

On 24 Apr 2000, Mr. Bad wrote:

> when you put a sugar cube half-way into a cup of coffee, and the
> coffee "climbs" up the cube. The coffee is moving from an area of high
> concentration (the cup) to low concentration (the sugar).

I think this is caused by surface tension, not diffusion.  But I still do
not fully understand why it happens, or surface tension in general.

A better example is the way a mug of coffee will stay warmer if you put a
saucer on top of it.  Even though the saucer doesn't seal and its
insulating power is irrelevant, the wet-air zone it creates inside the mug
makes the air-wetness gradient as you move upward from the coffee-air
interface more gradual.  This slows the diffusion of water vapour away
from the infintessimally thin air-layer right above the coffee, so that
less evaporation is required to maintain the water's vapour pressure at
the interface.

-- 
Miles Nordin / v:+1 720 841-8308 fax:+1 530 579-8680
555 Bryant Street PMB 182 / Palo Alto, CA 94301-1700 / US

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