The Physics Behind Popping Corks

There is a lot of biology, chemistry, anthropology, history, anecdotes, and apparently physics in each bottle of wine. The physics become much more exciting with sparkling wine, because of all that pressure built up in the bottle. Helen Czerski did a great job explaining some of the basics of those physics in an article at the end of last year in the Wall Street Journal.

Sometimes learning more about the process of making wine (or anything for that matter) can be somewhat overwhelming and not add to the beauty of enjoying that wine (or whatever it might be); but Helen explains the physics behind opening a bottle of bubbles, and some of the interesting things that happen in the milliseconds after a cork is popped. Your friends might never believe you when you tell them that the temperature drops to -94F around the neck of the bottle when you first open it, but you'll know you're right and have Helen's experiments to back you up along the way. She makes learning about the physics of a bottle of bubbles a joy, so let's keep on learning about all the interesting things that happen with a bottle of bubbles.

To read the full article, please visit the link here.

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