Mathematicians Show Why Bubbles Sink in Nitrogen-Infused Stouts

SicariusMan writes "The age old question: do Guinness and other stouts' bubbles really sink, or is it an optical illusion? Well, some mathematicians have figured it out." Full paper via arXiv; From the article: "To analyze the effect of different glass shapes, the mathematicians modeled Guinness beer containing randomly distributed bubbles in both a pint glass and an anti-pint glass (i.e., an upside-down pint). An elongated swirling vortex forms in both glasses, but in the anti-pint glass the vortex rotates in the opposite direction, causing an upward flow of fluid and bubbles near the wall of the glass."

Comments

late to the party

[Anonymous Coward]

The Australians figured it out 12 years ago

http://science.slashdot.org/story/00/01/11/2156213/why-bubbles-in-guinness-fall