Our hosts for Nature Friday LLB Gang
At 8pm Saturday, January 24, a bit of snow and sleet started to fall. This is not snow. About 11 pm it turned in to all it is a combination of freezing rain and sleet
Photo taken at 8 am Sunday, January 25, 2026
As you saw on yesterday's post, we had a sleet/freezing rain/and a wee bit of snow event earlier this week. In case of a power outage, we had plenty of blankets and gas logs to stay warm; however, I was very concerned about NO coffee. I bought a TAL ranger pro thermos.
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Short answer is:
Water stays hotter than coffee in a thermos primarily due to a smaller temperature difference between the hot water and the ambient air, resulting in slower heat loss. Coffee is often served hotter and cools faster because heat loss, through conduction and radiation, is proportional to the difference in temperature, meaning the hotter liquid (coffee) loses heat more rapidly to the environment and oils in coffee make it cool faster.
Longer more scientific answers are at the end of the post.
Click here Hostess Miss Mimi
Flashback January 29, 2010
x+y=1bc
January 30, 2010
The answer to yesterday's puzzle
is below.MOL LOL BOL AND LOLTIME (laughing out loud tears in my eyes)
Longer answer to why water stays hotter than coffee in a thermos
- Temperature Difference (Delta T): Hotter liquids, like coffee, have a larger temperature difference with the surrounding air compared to warm water. According to thermodynamic principles, a higher temperature difference leads to a faster rate of heat transfer.
- Initial Temperature and Thermal Mass: Coffee is typically brewed and poured at a higher temperature than water for tea or other uses, causing it to lose more energy over time.
- Thermal Conductivity and Insulation: While a thermos uses a vacuum layer to minimize conduction and convection, and reflective, silvered surfaces to reduce radiation, no insulation is perfect. The higher the temperature of the liquid, the faster the heat will eventually pass through this insulation.
