Science in Tea (Super Science Experiments)

You will need:

1. 2 mugs
2. Hot tea
3. Milk (room temperature)
4. Thermometer

When is the exact time to add milk in tea, before or after brewing tea? Figure it out with this experiment.

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Pour hot tea of the same temperature into 2 mugs. Make sure you pour the same amount into
   both cups.
2. Add milk in one of the cups of tea.
3. Leave both, the black tea and the milk tea for 15 minutes.
4. Now add the milk to the second
   cup of tea.
5. Once you add the milk to the black tea, check the temperature of both the cups of tea. Which cup of tea is hotter?

RESULT

Surprisingly, even though both the cups of tea were of the same temperature, the cup of tea which had milk added to it in the beginning would be warmer than the cup of tea which had milk added to it after 15 minutes. By adding milk to the tea we are lowering its temperature. So initially, the temperature of the cup of tea which had milk poured into it drops a few degrees and it is cooler than that of the black tea. However, the greater the difference in temperature between the liquid and its surroundings the more heat it will lose. So the black tea loses energy quickly. In spite of that, it will be warmer than the milk tea, but only till the time milk is not added to it. After rapidly losing heat, once milk is added to it, its temperature falls further making it of a lower temperature than that of the milk tea.