Math and Chocolate

Math and chocolate–since those are two of my favorite words, imagine my joy when I came across the news that a University College London (UCL) student had been exploring the math behind chocolate fountains.

Notice how the chocolate in a chocolate fountain doesn’t flow straight down–it curves slightly inward at each tier. The research–which involved lots of math!–concluded that this is due to surface tension.

“Chocolate fountains are just cool, aren’t they!” said Adam Townsend (UCL Mathematics), lead author of the paper based on his MSci project. “But it’s also nice that they’re models of some very important aspects of fluid dynamics. We’ve used some serious maths to solve a fun problem- why the chocolate ‘curtain’ on a chocolate fountain always falls inwards.” – See more at: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/1115/251115-chocolate-fountain-physics#sthash.LVBoAQGl.dpuf

Want to learn more? Here’s the UCL article: “Exploring the Physics of Chocolate Fountains”

I would add that chocolate fountains are yet another example of how math helps us understand and describe the orderly way God created and sustains this universe. Until next time, have fun using math to explore God’s creation.