Bartender's Guide to Calculus

by Haley Robbins

Submitted : Fall 2017

In this project, my coworker suggested pouring the liquor into sauce containers we had and calculating how long it took for the vodka and whiskey to fill the containers. After purchasing two-1.75 Liter bottles of Smirnoff Vodka and Jack Daniel’s Whiskey, I did a trial run with the liquors at room temperature. I did this because when both liquors are at room temperature, their consistencies are almost identical- having a water-like pour to it. This causes the graphs of the volume in ounces vs. the time in seconds to overlap at a certain points. When you freeze them, the whiskey thickens and the vodka stays a thin, silk consistency. This causes a change in the amount of time it take the container to fill up. After letting them freeze, I took two of the same spouts (otherwise known as pourers) and put them on both bottles. I then filled the containers while my coworker timed me. I poured three times for each liquor and took the average time for each container to fill up and made graphs that showed how the Jack Daneiel’s Whiskey poured at a slower rate than the Smirnoff Vodka.  

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