Mathematicians are using their skills to make the perfect cup of coffee. It is odd that mathematicians are trying to find what is behind the perfect cup of coffee, but coffee consists of 1,800 chemical components. If you combine these with the different ways of brewing coffee, there are many numbers involved. The mathematicians used some complex calculations to find out how to make an ideal cuppa. Researchers Dr William Lee and Dr Kevin Moroney focused on what happens to coffee as it goes through different filter coffee machines.
The scientists hope their research will change the way coffee machines are made. Dr Lee said: "Our overall idea is to have a complete mathematical model of coffee brewing that you could use to design coffee machines, rather like we use a theory…to design racing cars." Coffee lovers might soon be able to adjust the things that affect the taste of the coffee as it is filtered and brewed. These include how hot the water is and how fast it flows, the size of the ground coffee, the length of time it is brewed, and more. The research is published in an Applied Mathematics journal.
