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why tea scum layer cracks across every second producing such alternating mosaics ? how to predict ?

On the vaporous surface of freshly brewed tea grows often a thin layer of scum. You will observe on the attached video that not only this layer appears to be crazed, but also that the mosaic formed by these cracks regenerates around every second in a new different mosaic, like a mosaic slideshow. This phenomenon may also be observed on very hot coffee. It looks like a chaotic phenomenon. The attached experience was made in a bowl with very hot plain water and green tea. The cracks suddenly propagate across the scum layer and produce a new mosaic. How to explain such a difference between the patterns ? What make the crack propagate ?

sssss
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  • Asked by alex62
  • on 2010-12-05 11:09:38
  • Member status
  • none

Categories: Domestic Science.

Tags: Tea, Surface, Coffee, vapour, scum, chaos.

 

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Moderator says:

Sorry your video file did not upload correctly. Could you please try again? Thanks, the moderator

sssss
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Tags: Tea, Surface, Coffee, vapour, scum, chaos.

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posted on 2011-09-29 10:48:32 | Report abuse


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njrking1 says:

As well as motion from convection there is also the fact that the scum is insoluble, this means that attractive forces between 'scum' and other 'scum' are stronger than those between the scum and the water so there will be a tendency for it to congregate as electrostatic attractions have an infinite range.

sssss
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Tags: Tea, Surface, Coffee, vapour, scum, chaos.

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posted on 2012-01-30 10:08:56 | Report abuse


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hatrack says:

I'll take a wild guess based on what it looks like I'm seeing in the video.

As water evaporates from the surface, it leaves a film of mineral deposits on the surface which grows thicker and heavier until it starts to sink where the thickest parts are.  The parts that sink instantly re-dissolve.  It's also possible there's a very thin film of vapour between the liquid and the mineral layer breventing it from coming into contact with the water until it starts to sink.

I'm probably wrong, because I have very little knowledge of this sort of thing, but that's what appears to be happening in the video.

sssss
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Tags: Tea, Surface, Coffee, vapour, scum, chaos.

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posted on 2012-11-29 18:30:55 | Report abuse


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