The teachers’ office at Science Studios smells remarkably good whenever a good old cup of coffee is being brewed. Gone were the days when making coffee was just mixing a packet of instant coffee with water. Now, there is another strong coffee contender at the pantry: UCC drip coffee brought from Don don donki .
Personally, I do think that this cup of instant drip coffee can rival other gourmet coffee you get at chic cafes.

Let’s delve into the science of making this aromatic, simple cup of coffee and see how it is actually quite an ingenious system of putting various materials together, tapping on their different properties to achieve the process of coffee brewing.

P3 & P4 MOE Science Lower Block Syllabus: Materials and Systems

A system is made of different parts that work together to perform a certain function.

For example the pen is a system.

Can you identify which cup of coffee (instant coffee or the drip coffee) is a system?

The drip coffee is a system as it requires different components to work together for the coffee to be made. The cup of instant coffee is not a system as there is only coffee powder in the cup.

Unlike instant coffee that simply gets dissolved into the hot water, most of the coffee powder of the drip coffee does not dissolve in hot water and will be discarded.

How does the drip coffee systems work using different properties of materials?

The drip coffee system depends on 2 different materials that serves different functions.

Filter paper
Function:
- It contains the coffee powder and allows hot water to pass through the coffee powder. The coffee is brewed and drips down the cup through the filter paper.

Properties:
- It allows water to pass through it easily.

Waxed paper cardboard
Function:
- It holds up the filter paper and the coffee powder at the top of the cup.

Properties:
- It is a waterproof material and it does not allow water to pass through it easily. The cardboard has a layer of wax that keeps it waterproof. It is important for it to be dry so that it will not break.

- It needs to be relatively strong so that it may not break easily and is able to support the mass of the filter paper and its coffee content.

- It needs to be relatively stiff so that it may not bend easily and is able to maintain its shape to hang onto the cup. There are parts of the cardboard that are perforated such that those parts can be bent and flatten to fit into the packaging.

Try out this mini quiz!