According to a new study on the coffee spilling phenomena in the low impulse regime, it looked at the movement of fluids and how they are affected by a human holding a coffee mug. In essence, this research found out why coffee in a mug has the tendency to splash against the cup, as opposed to a wine in a glass.
The author of the study, Jiwon Han used detailed calculations and graphs to find a way to hold a cup full of coffee, explaining that rarely do we manage to carry coffee around without spilling it once.
Han discovered a significance difference in spillage between using the handle and the claw model by measuring the frequency of oscillations in coffee mugs.
“Since the magnitude of acceleration in the claw-hand model is significantly smaller, the claw-hand posture is less likely to spill coffee.”
Adding that, walking backwards may also lessen the chances of spilling coffee.