The Physics of a Beer Prank

A pair of beer drinking physicists have set their minds to explain some of the science behind beer bubbles.

The act is colloquially referred to as “beer tapping”: Someone hits a beer bottle on the head, often with the bottom of their own bottle, and within seconds the victim of the prank is left with a small amount of flat beer and a bottle dripping with foamy bubbles of carbon dioxide.

Javier Rodríguez-Rodríguez, assistant professor at the Fluid Mechanics Group of Carlos III University of Madrid and lead author of an abstract about the research, and his colleagues were at a bar discussing the process behind this phenomenon when they realized they did not fully understand it. And according to their unsuccessful search for a solution online and through scientific databases, neither did anyone else.

Honestly, I've never had this happen to me. But I guess if you're going to do research, you might as well do beer research. Hopefully, they wasted factory beer, not beer that would have been better put to use by consuming it. 

Today's Checklist

I'm done.

Are you?

Fall Freedom Fest - Celebrating the 2nd Amendment

The Fall Freedom Festival in Fredericksburg this weekend was a timely celebration of the 2nd Amendment. Freedom, and especially the right to bear arms, are under attack in Virginia. New York mayor Bloomberg is diverting some of his fortune, and his lies, towards our state in an attempt to buy tomorrow's gubernatorial election for Democrat Terry McAuliffe. The issue was a common theme with folks I spoke to at the event.

The event was sponsored by a local gun shop, SSG Tactical. and brought together a variety of vendors and advocacy groups. I spent some time talking with Emily Miller, author of Emily Gets Her Gun: ...But Obama Wants to Take Yours. Her book is an excellent accounting of her struggle to exercise her natural and Constitutional rights in the District of Columbia. If you haven't read it, do so. Even if you aren't a gun owner, her report of government attacks on the Constitutional are mind-boggling. (And yes, I did ask Emily to sign my book.)

One of my favorite displays was the table of guns set out by the SIG Sauer representative. I almost walked by the table at first, as he had no sign out, but my "SIG-sense" caused me to stop in my tracks. I was able to fondle the new P227 and bunch of other pistols from my favorite gun manufacturer. I went back to the table several times! I even managed to score a SIG Sauer hat and a deck of playing cards featuring the gun maker's products — although it was actually the local radio station that was passing out the SIG schwag!

At the NRA booth the focus was on the Virginia elections. I grabbed a stack of paper targets and the person there also gave me a handout on Ken Cuccinelli's 2nd Amendment platform. I turned it over and saw a photograph of Terry McAuliffe as well as an exposé on his plans against freedom. In my best non-PC voice, I exclaimed, "Oh boy, more targets!"

Also in attendance was Top Shot contestant, William Bethards. We rooted for him on the show since he's a Fredericksburg resident, but I admit he wasn't my pick as my favorite to win in both seasons in which he appeared. I did get to spend some time chatting with William, and in juxtaposition to his on-air personality, he's a friendly and quiet guy. He shared the "trials" of juggling being a professional shooter and an FBI agent. It seems sometimes there's more shooting to do than he has time for. Such problems we all should have.

I did purchase a few raffle tickets for the Friends of NRA "Wall of Guns" raffle. Alas, my phone hasn't rung, so I guess there are no new guns in my immediate future. The leading Virginia guns rights organization, Virginia Citizens Defense League, also had a strong presence. The orange "Guns Save Lives" stickers were everywhere. Although at the festival they were preaching to the choir, hopefully folks kept the stickers on display as they travelled home from the event.

Again and again, the conversation during the afternoon turned to the threat to freedom in Virginia from Terry McCauliffe and out of state intruder Michael Bloomberg. While the focus of Bloomberg's money in Virginia had been on taking away self-defense right from law-abiding citizens, any intelligent person knows he won't stop there. Do you like your salt, your large soft drinks, your health insurance? They are in jeopardy when Bloomberg calls in the favors he's owed by McAuliffe should the democrat be the next Virginia Governor.

The election is Tuesday, so if you haven't already done so, quickly, do some research on Ken Cuccinelli. You don't have to dig very deep to expose the lies being spread by McAuliffe, Bloomberg, as well as the liar-in-chief, who has been seen in Virginia campaigning on the anti-freedom side. This race will undoubtably be close, so if you are a Virginian, be sure to vote to protect your rights so that we may celebrate a second Fall Freedom Festival next year.

Five O'Clock Friday: Beer Time

I can hardly wait...

I've Got Some Catching Up To Do

I often get asked questions about how much beer I drink. Some people think that since I'm public about my appreciation for good beer, I must drink a lot. It's about quality folks, not quantity. The Boulder County, Colorado government, in a part of the country that is no stranger to craft breweries, has a "Drinking Limits for Health" guide on their web site.

In Boulder County, more than 15 percent of residents regularly exceed the recommended alcohol limits. Drinking limits to maintain health (low-risk drinking limits) are: 

• Women: No more than 3 drinks on any day, and no more than 7 drinks in a week.
• Men: No more than 4 drinks on any day, and no more than 14 drinks in a week. 

To stay low risk, keep within both the daily and weekly limits. Women who are pregnant or may become pregnant, or who are breastfeeding should not drink. Both men and women over the age of 65 should have no more than 3 drinks on any day and no more than 7 per week.

Wow! I don't even get close to hitting either of those thresholds. I might even not be drinking enough to stay healthy. I'm going to have to reevaluate.

The web page also has a quiz you can take to check your own drinking levels.

I passed...

Hitler Hears About the Obamacare Website

Offered with no apologies to the sensitive types out there...

Adventure Brewing Finds a Home

The Fredericksburg area's newest brewery is one step closer to reality. Adventure Brewing posted to their Facebook page recently that they had signed a lease, and submitted their Brewers Notice to the federal government. The brewery will be located at 33 Perchwood Dr, Fredericksburg, VA 22405.

Musings readers are familiar with my fondness for enjoying a good beer after some fun at the range. As such, when I looked at the Google map of the new location I couldn't help but notice the brewery will be located just around the corner from the local indoor range. I haven't gotten out to The Range in some time, but I might be tempted to make a combination trip!

The Fredericksburg Business Insider also has information on the brewery's progress.

Walnut Ridge Match - Yep, Summer's Over

It's been a few months since I got over to the monthly Walnut Creek Practical Shooters USPSA match at Summit Point, West Virginia. Last time I made the early morning drive it wasn't dark (or cold) for the start of the drive. The cold and dark early morning made me briefly wonder why I do this, but I was still looking forward to the match and the friends. My dashboard thermometer read 27° when I arrived at the range, but we saw a "warmer" 32° by the time we fired the first shot. Fortunately it warmed further to a tolerable temperature as the morning progressed.

The first stage I shot was called "Goblin's Run." The shooter started seated, with the loaded gun on a table. It was a pretty straightforward stage from there, the final shots made on a swinging target. A good stage on which to shake off the cold.

Next up, "Don't Go Outside," was very well laid out and required the shooter to make full use of the free fire zone; going in and out of the corners and "jags." For me it took some extra thought to plan out. There were targets that were obviously, at first, engaged from certain positions. But as a Production shooter limited to 10 rounds in the magazines, I saw traps of standing reloads if I took the obvious route. There was also one target that had to be engaged from a extreme lean around the left side of a wall. The Walnut Ridge stage designers frequently place targets in positions that put the shooter off-balance, adding to the challenge. Most often I try to end a stage on those shots, but in this case my plan put the target in the middle of my run. I had a good run on the stage, despite one D hit.

The third stage our squad shot was the Classifier, "Can You Count?" I had never shot this popular standard stage, but was looking forward to it. The directions are to draw the gun, put five shots on a close target, perform a mandatory reload, then put five hits on a second target. It's truly a "go fast or go home" stage. After the first string, the RO stated, "That was a sub 5 second run." I ran the second stage and as soon as I finished I saw a lone hole out in the C zone. "D'oh," I exclaimed to the amusement of my squad mates. But, again the time on the string was good. My total time for the two strings was 9.40 seconds, with 19 A's and 1C, for a hit factor of 10.4255. I think that's good enough to add a B-Classifier to my records. Given my recent string of poor Classifiers I was VERY happy with this one, and it also gave me a 6th place finish on the stage.

"Black Cat Alley" had 28 paper targets and 2 Pepper Poppers arranged in a long line among some angled walls. Most of the paper targets were arranged in pairs, one on top of the other, leaving only a portion of the top target exposed. While there were no hard cover or no-shoot targets, shooting too low would put an extra hit on the lower target and earn a miss on the top. I took my time on this one, but did have my only miss of the match on this stage.

"Freddy's Revenge" was an interesting stage that was essentially a U-shaped run with targets on both sides of the "legs." Depending on how a shooter decided to run it, they could be shooting while moving backwards, or running up range past a target and turning around to shoot. Either way there were targets that could be engaged at point blank range. Targets frequently had pasters blown off, or the target destroyed by muzzle blast. I opted for a conservative approach and crossed the "U" at each end to avoid retreating back up range. Granted, it was fun to shoot the targets point blank while running past them, hitting 20 A's, 2 C's and 1 D. That seemingly good run was actually my second lowest stage finish of the day.

The final stage for me was "Trick Or Speed." From a single shooting box, there were three arrays of targets to be engaged; five falling steel poppers, a Texas Star, and finally three paper targets. A mandatory mag change was called for between each array. I struggled on the last two plates of the star, but at least finished with 6 A hits on the paper.

I was extremely pleased with how I shot on this chilly Saturday in West Virginia. Just one miss and two D hits, gave me a 13th place finish out of 25 Production shooters. I finished three of the 6 stages in the top ten. But most exciting personally, was earning a personal record of 90% of the available match points. It was a fun match and a very satisfying day of shooting. I'm glad I didn't let the cold and dark deter me from playing.