You see an unsuspecting mate with an open beer bottle. And as anyone knows, the only rational next step is to give the top of the bottle a strong hit and watch the beautiful “brewski volcano” erupt.

The beer-tapping phenomenon was a long-standing puzzle in beer science (isn’t that something you wish you’d studied…) until physicist Javier Rodriguez of Madrid University and his team decided to undertake the challenge of figuring it out. We get it Spain. Your problems are cooler than ours.

Rodriguez and his team conducted beer research, under “well-controlled conditions” (i.e. not in a pub). This consisted of filming the beer-tapping process on high-speed cameras. And what they discovered will blow your mind.

A hit on the top of the bottle sets off tiny explosions inside the beer. These miniature blasts create mushroom clouds that are similar to those generated in the air by an atomic bomb. Rodriguez says:

Actually, the laws of physics that control the development of these beer mushroom clouds are the same as [those that drive] the development of the cloud in an atomic bomb.

So, remember kids, you’re not just spilling beer. You’re doing science.

Brought to you by Grolsch

[Source : NPR]