Though some people merely drink tea, Daniel Ives at the University of Colorado went further. His photo-essay, invoking Ficks’s Laws of Diffusion, is called “Tea Time: Flow Physics Involved in Brewing Tea“.
The essay begins:
“Mankind has been enjoying hot cups of tea for thousands of years, and tea is the most commonly consumed beverage in the world. Yet, very few tea drinkers understand the physics and fluid mechanics involved in brewing a cup of tea. For the first assignment in Flow Visualization, the guiding physics and fluid flow associated with tea brewing were investigated. In doing so, visualization methods and photographic techniques were used to explore how a cup of tea can appeal to more senses than just taste. The intent was to capture the full scientific process as well as the beauty that goes into each cup of tea.”
BONUS: An essay “On the sesquicentennial of Fick’s laws of diffusion“