h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

my source is Adam hart davis from one of his TV shows

and mine was some other historian on some other show, which probably means 'no one really knows' - or perhaps both are true, it's possible!

Regarding tea making and as a life long tea addict i can speak from expearience here . Putting the milk in the cup before the tea is fine if you make the tea in a pot , but for teabag tea [ an abomination in the eyes of some ] its got to be boiling water poured into a pre-warmed mug . Otherwise the tea will not infuse properly .

Best fishes.......tod

Indeed. The animation is correct in that scalded milk is not nice, but the only way of avoiding it is with a teapot.

Just to reiterate what Tod says in slightly stronger language, please please please NEVER add milk to an empty mug if you do not have a teapot.

If you absolutely must make tea in a mug, pre-warm the mug, have the teabag in already, and add boiling water, then go ahead, poke the teabag with a spoon if you like to do so, but wait long enough to take it out, and always take it out before scalding your milk.

Scalding your milk in the mug is definitely better than clogging a teabag with milk before adding hot water.

And for confused waiters/waitresses outside the UK - I do not want to be brought a teabag on a saucer next to a previously warmish cup of water EVER. Thankyou.

vp

Umm, sorry if that was a bit rant-like btw... don't know what came over me.

For accurately diluting acids, you need to have most but not all of the solvent, eg water, in the flask first, for aforementioned safety reasons, but you do indeed have to make it up to the mark with solvent at end, for aforementioned solvent/solute interactions reasons.

Solvent, solute, solvent. Sloowly.
vp

I would only point you all to this - A859737

turvy