Thoughts on Stemware, Part Three<\/a>).\u00a0 Others like colored glass stemware, especially in the base.<\/p>\nNo, I’m thinking more from an engineering point of view.\u00a0 Is there an optimum geometry to the fundamental inverted cone shape of a Martini stem?\u00a0 What’s the optimum height?\u00a0 Cross section?\u00a0 And how is optimum defined?<\/p>\n
![\"stem-geometry\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/shakennotstirred.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Stem-Geometry-2.png?resize=300%2C180\")
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ![\"stem-equations\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/shakennotstirred.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Stem-Equations-1.png?resize=300%2C109\")
<\/p>\n
Alright, I’m sure most people never worry about such things.\u00a0 I guess this is the curse of being an Engineer.\u00a0 But there is one important consideration that came from my pondering.\u00a0 From a strictly geometric point of view, what shape will keep my Martini coldest the longest?<\/p>\n
The liquid enters the stem at a given temperature, hopefully very well chilled.\u00a0 Then it gains heat through both the glass of the stem and the surface area of the liquid.\u00a0 For the sake of my geometric analysis I made a couple of assumptions:
\n1.\u00a0 The heat transfer rate is the same between the glass of the stem and the air above the liquid.\u00a0 This is dependent on assumption 2.\u00a0\u00a0 (I am ignoring heat transfer from the drinker’s hands or the bar top through the stem.\u00a0 I’m also ignoring radiated heat, such as from the lights.)
\n2.\u00a0 Any heat transfer from the glass bowl to the liquid would be transferred via the glass from the air surrounding the bowl.\u00a0\u00a0 So, in essence all heat enters the Martini from the air, either directly from above or via the glass sides.\u00a0\u00a0 (It isn’t strictly true, but that’s another analysis for another day.)
\n3.\u00a0 The optimum shape will be that which maximizes the ration of liquid volume (V) to surface area (SA).<\/p>\n
Before I jumped into a bunch of algebra, I did a couple of mental experiments so I would know what to expect from the algebra, and if those answers made sense.\u00a0\u00a0 If I keep the radius constant and vary the height, how does the volume vary?\u00a0 How does the surface area vary?\u00a0 Contrarily, if I keep the height constant and varied the radius, what happens.\u00a0 While that proved interesting, it really didn’t help\u00a0 But if you want to see what came out of it, I’ve included a few observations at the very end of this post.<\/p>\n
Clearly this was going to be a multi dimensional analysis.\u00a0 In order to keep the algebra, and potentially calculus, manageable I made one more assumption:
\n4.\u00a0 Set the Martini volume to 1.
\n(It could be anything, since I’m looking for the optimum cone, and cones are proportional, I can scale the volume after I find the best geometry.)<\/p>\n
So what’s the answer?\u00a0 42!\u00a0 No wait, that’s something else.\u00a0 The ‘right’ answer for a Martini stem is,\u00a0 interestingly, 45 degrees.\u00a0 Specifically, the cone half angle (\u03b1) should be 45 degrees.\u00a0 The full angle is therefore 90 degrees.\u00a0 To convert that to an appropriately sized stem, lets pick a reasonable bowl height, such as 2 inches.\u00a0 Then r would also be 2 inches and the diameter of the bowl would be 4 inches.\u00a0 So what does that geometry look like?\u00a0 Something like this:<\/p>\n
![\"stem-shape-final\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/shakennotstirred.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Stem-Shape-Final-1.png?resize=300%2C296\")
<\/p>\n
Well it turns out that “typical” martini stem we all know and love is actually pretty darn close to optimum shape.\u00a0 Sure stems vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, but the traditional martini stem is very close to perfect!\u00a0 Now I just wonder if the manufacturers really designed this for thermodynamic optimization?\u00a0 Or because is just looks pretty?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Random thoughts:<\/p>\n
If the radius is constant, then the maximum volume to surface area occurs with an infinitely tall Martini “column”.\u00a0 Not a useful stem, though the Martini volume would be great.\u00a0 The volume to surface area (V\/SA) approaches 1\/3 in the extreme.<\/p>\n
If the height is constant, then the maximum volume to surface area occurs with an infinitely wide Martini ‘disk’.\u00a0 Difficult to lift and unwieldy, but again a nice large Martini.\u00a0\u00a0 Here the volume to surface area (V\/SA) approaches 1\/6 in the extreme.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Have you ever sat there with a Martini comfortably cradled in your hand and wonder what is the optimum bowl shape for a Martini?\u00a0 Is it a very wide flaring bowl?\u00a0 A very narrow tall bowl, almost a flute? \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0},"categories":[35,14],"tags":[73,117,15,40],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":220,"url":"http:\/\/shakennotstirred.us\/?p=220","url_meta":{"origin":1679,"position":0},"title":"To Stem or Not to Stem","author":"wlmoon58","date":"April 5, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Anybody out there like this trend of Martini Stemware without the 'Stem'? I've noticed a number of places serving my Martinis in glassware that is short, almost stubby, with a bulbous 'foot', and no noticeable 'stem'.\u00a0 The bowl is still an inverted triangle shape, but that's about all that remains\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Martini"","block_context":{"text":"Martini","link":"http:\/\/shakennotstirred.us\/?cat=10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":175,"url":"http:\/\/shakennotstirred.us\/?p=175","url_meta":{"origin":1679,"position":1},"title":"What’s the best way to hold the Martini?","author":"wlmoon58","date":"March 27, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"What's the best way to hold the stem to retain maximum Martini coldness? I use two fingers at the rim.\u00a0 Is it better to hold the base?\u00a0 Or the stem itself? Having my fingers on the rim of the bowl certainly transmits heat to the glass and then the drink.\u00a0\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Stemware"","block_context":{"text":"Stemware","link":"http:\/\/shakennotstirred.us\/?cat=14"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":121,"url":"http:\/\/shakennotstirred.us\/?p=121","url_meta":{"origin":1679,"position":2},"title":"Thoughts on Stemware, Part Three","author":"wlmoon58","date":"May 22, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Its been a while since I shared some thoughts on stemware, so here are a few Friday Musings.... Crooked stems?\u00a0 Split?\u00a0 Or big sweeping curving stems?\u00a0 Is there some reason for a crooked\/curved\/split stem that I'm just not seeing?\u00a0 Or is this just trendy? And I've already demonized those little\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Stemware"","block_context":{"text":"Stemware","link":"http:\/\/shakennotstirred.us\/?cat=14"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":114,"url":"http:\/\/shakennotstirred.us\/?p=114","url_meta":{"origin":1679,"position":3},"title":"Thoughts on Stemware, Part One","author":"wlmoon58","date":"March 3, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Do you have a preference on stemware? Perhaps you haven\u2019t thought too much about it. Many people\u2019s only desire is a clean stem for their drink. That\u2019s clearly a good start. I do have a preference; I want my Martini in a stem with some heft, some weight, and some\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Martini"","block_context":{"text":"Martini","link":"http:\/\/shakennotstirred.us\/?cat=10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1532,"url":"http:\/\/shakennotstirred.us\/?p=1532","url_meta":{"origin":1679,"position":4},"title":"The Perfect Martini “How To”s Collected","author":"wlmoon58","date":"November 9, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Over the course of the almost two years that I've been writing this blog I've posted many random martini quotes, several reviews of restaurant and bars, made opinionated comments about stemware, and expounded on my pet peeves.\u00a0 And, of course, I've also written extensively on what I believe makes a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Gin"","block_context":{"text":"Gin","link":"http:\/\/shakennotstirred.us\/?cat=11"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/shakennotstirred.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Martini-with-Twist.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":116,"url":"http:\/\/shakennotstirred.us\/?p=116","url_meta":{"origin":1679,"position":5},"title":"Thoughts on Stemware, Part Two","author":"wlmoon58","date":"March 7, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"A few more rambling thoughts on \"cold\" stemware....... We know that smaller things warm up quickly and larger object warm up more slowly. Specifically objects with larger thermal masses warm up more slowly. Usually, but not always, thermal mass correlates with object mass. Additionally some materials are thermal insulators, meaning\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Martini"","block_context":{"text":"Martini","link":"http:\/\/shakennotstirred.us\/?cat=10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/shakennotstirred.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1679"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/shakennotstirred.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/shakennotstirred.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/shakennotstirred.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/shakennotstirred.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1679"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"http:\/\/shakennotstirred.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1931,"href":"http:\/\/shakennotstirred.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1679\/revisions\/1931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/shakennotstirred.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/shakennotstirred.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/shakennotstirred.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/shakennotstirred.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/TAPS-Martini.jpg?resize=169%2C300\")
<\/p>\n![\"stem-wide\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/shakennotstirred.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Stem-Wide.png?resize=171%2C145\")
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 or\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ![\"stem-tall\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/shakennotstirred.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Stem-Tall.png?resize=75%2C157\")
<\/p>\n