Thursday, December 21, 2006

Some Christmas questions answered...part 2

How does a teaspoon inserted into an opened bottle of champagne ensure it keeps its fizz overnight?

It doesn't. This is an urban myth perpetuated by uncontrolled experimentation. People leave spoons in their bottles and find that the wine is still fizzy the next day, so they presume the teaspoon was the reason. However, if you leave an opened bottle of champagne overnight with no teaspoon in the neck it will be just as fizzy. The truth is that champagne takes a long time to lose its fizz. It's not uncommon to attach significance to apparently linked events, which is why science always uses controls to separate real data from presumed data. This experiment works just as well with cava, and as two bottles are needed, it's significantly cheaper that way.

Go on and try it out, buy Champagne and Cava... leave some overnight and drink the rest next day... Put the spoon in and the other let it sit there. Drink it. Taste it. Enjoy it.
All for the cause of Science!

1 comment:

izzolda said...

The solution for this important problem is quite simple: just ensure there are no champagne leftovers ;)