Every party would not be complete without a chocolate fountain. Yet, how many people actually know how it works? A math student reveals the physics behind chocolate fountains in a study published in the journal European Journal of Physics.
The researchers found that the sheet of chocolate pulls inwards, instead of straight downward when flowed through a chocolate fountain, because of surface tension.
"Chocolate fountains are just cool, aren't they? But it's also nice that they're models of some very important aspects of fluid dynamics," explains Adam Townsend, author of the study and a mathematics student at University College London.
Townsend, together with co-author Dr. Helen Wilson from UCL Mathematics, solved the mystery of the joining sheets of chocolate by using the mechanics used on water bells. They used mathematical computations to determine why the chocolate sheet flows inwards instead of just downward.
According to Dr. Wilson, building a water bell is easy and fast. In fact, it can be built by using a pen standing upward under a faucet with a coin on top. The water will be shaped like a bell as it flows downward.
They studied three different domains of a chocolate fountain: pumped pipe flow, dome flow and curtain flow. After testing all three, they found that curtain flow is the 'dominating factor' in pulling the sheet of thin chocolate inwards.
"The subject matter is intrinsically attractive (tasty, even!) and we hope that others get the opportunity to learn about this area of mathematics with their own chocolate fountain," the authors concluded in their study.
The researchers were delighted that their work made it easier for people to understand the mechanics behind chocolate fountains that everyone is fond of. This gave them an opportunity to interact with the public.
"I've been talking at mathematics enrichment events around London for the last few years. If I can convince just one person that maths is more than Pythagoras' Theorem, I'll have succeeded," Townsend said. According to him, mathematics can be used in many aspects of life including important industries.
