Cream in the Coffee: Mechanical vs. Chemical

As I sat stirring the cheap powdery cream into my lukewarm coffee this morning, I noticed that it clumped and stuck to the edges of the mug and the rim of the plastic spoon. The mug had still been half full, yet cold, when I poured in a remaining half of hot, then followed that with cream.

This must be why the cream was not dissolving. However, as I was stirring, I felt that it should mix into the coffee, yet it wasn't - not very well, at least.

I know that when all the coffee is hot, then it stirs very easily. The heat must be the trick.

Yet, doesn't the act of stirring itself generate heat? Probably not as much as the heat generated by the coffee pot.

Then I imagined myself one of those old Newtonian scientists, who did everything by observation. What I am observing, I thought, is the difference between Mechanical recation and Chemical reaction. The mechanical will be effective, but only over time - if I stir for five minutes all the cream may eventually be dissolved. However, the coffee pot so energizes with heat the molecules of the coffee that their very heat breaks apart the cream as soon as it hits the liquid, and even though it requires stirring, the stirring is much less than when the coffee is cold.

Thus, would the reaction of the heated molecules of the coffee assist in the chemical reaction/breakdown of the cream molecules? And when there is no heat to assist the reaction, it must all be mechanical, and as we have proven, mechanical takes time.

Therefore, there is an inverse reaction between heat and time. Were I a mathemetician I would make it into a formula, like

T = s/h, where T is time, s is stirring, h is heat. Thus, if stirring is a constant and we increase the heat, then we decrease the time. Time is actually inverted, the higher the heat.

And I promise you, dear readers, that I didn't plan on this, but reviewing my formula, and using i for inverse, I must now present to you my new formula for what it takes to stir powdery cream into coffee, and thereby reveal to you that

I am full of

s/h = (i)T




Didn't see that one coming!

VG