中英双语新闻 用数学方法制作完美咖啡

Some students may feel they need coffee to help get them through their maths homework, but can maths help with making coffee? Scientists think it can as I heard from our correspondent.

Well, scientists wanted to make a mathematical model of the perfect cup of coffee using a drip filter machine. So they used equations to perfectly 1 simulate or as much as they could the conditions inside the drip filter. So they really wanted to use this to design better machines.

Yeah, you wouldn’t have thought there were that many variables when it comes to making a cup of coffee. How much difference does it make?

Well grain size is a key thing. I mean when you’ve got larger grains and water flows through them more quickly, it tends towards a more watery 2 cup of coffee. You got smaller grains and water flows through them more slowly, and that tends towards a bitter tasting coffee. People want to tailor it because there’s a big market in this. And you know the drip filter machines are increasingly coming within the home. So people want to kind of do it from that angle, getting the coffee out of the beans and working backwards 3 to find out what parameters 4 you need to achieve it.

But presumably because each person has a different taste, it’s gonna be difficult to come up with just one formula.

Yeah, that’s right. There’s no specific formula but what they might be able to do is by this mathematical understanding, make machines more precision, use a more scientific approach so that you can vary the grain size, vary the water flow through it. And that will maybe you know just allow you to kind of get closer to that ideal of your perfect cup of coffee, not too bitter, or maybe a little bit bitter or more watery, however you like it really.

So is there an actual equation?

There’s lots of equations that they used. What they described it as was the way that they use fluid mechanics to understand Formula One, so there’s lots of maths involved in designing Formula One cars now. And that’s they want to do for the drip filter machine. You know, the coffee market is huge. It’s 100 billion a year. And there’s about 16 million coffee machines sold each year in Europe. There’re lots of other things they don’t understand like the way that the coffee moves around when it’s going through the filter. And they also want to know how you put the water in. That’s a key thing that affects the tastes. And there’re lots of big companies putting resources into you know really refining the technology behind some of these machines. So I think it’s fully 5 going on at the moment. You might see improvements in next five years and next ten years.

65 drawings claimed to be by the Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh have been unveiled in Paris.

有些学生可能会借助咖啡来完成数学作业，那数学可以帮助制作咖啡吗？科学家们认为可以，本台记者报道。

嗯，科学家们希望用滴滤机制作完美咖啡的数学模型。因此他们用方程完美模拟或尽可能模拟滴滤机里面的条件。所以他们非常希望借此设计更好的机器。

对，谁能想到做杯咖啡会考虑那么多的变量。这能起到多大的作用呢？

嗯，颗粒大小是个重要因素。也就是说，如果是稍大一些的颗粒，水流过它们的速度更快一些，那么这杯咖啡就会更稀一点。如果是稍小一些的颗粒，水流过它们的速度慢些，那这杯咖啡就有可能更苦一点。因为这方面市场很大，所以人们想定制。而且滴滤机越来越多地走入家庭，所以大家希望从这个角度来做，用咖啡豆磨咖啡，然后回过头来找出达到目的所需要的参数。

但可能每个人都有自己喜欢的口味，所以很研制出唯一的配方。

是的，没错。没有特定的配方，但可以做到的是通过数学理解，让机器更精确，用更科学的方法实现改变颗粒大小，改变通过的水流等。这可能会让你更接近你理想中的咖啡，不太苦或可能有一点苦，或稀一点，反正就是按照你喜欢的方式来。

有一个实际的方程式吗？

有很多可用的方程式，他们描述，这和用流体力学理解一级方程式赛车是一样的道理。设计一级方程式赛车用到很多数学方法。他们想把上述做法应用于滴滤机。咖啡市场很大的，一年市场价值为一千亿。而欧洲每年能卖出大概1600万台咖啡机。还有很多方面科学家们并不理解，比方说咖啡穿过滤网时的流动形态。他们还想知道怎么加水，这是影响咖啡口味的关键。另外，很多大公司投入资源认真改善一些机器背后的技术。因此，我认为目前这个概念在完全实现，可能未来5-10年会有更多进展。

据称是荷兰画家文森特·梵高的65幅画作在巴黎揭开了面纱。