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Comment by akoboldfrying | Hacker News Reader

The fact that the answer is interesting makes me suspect that it's not a good test for thinking. I remember reading the explanation for the answer somewhere on the internet years ago, and it's stayed with me ever since. It's interesting enough that it's probably been written about multiple times in multiple places. So I think it would probably stay with a transformer trained on large volumes of data from the internet too.

I think a better test of thinking is to provide detail about something so mundane and esoteric that no one would have ever thought to communicate it to other people for entertainment, and then ask it a question about that pile of boring details.

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Out of curiosity, what is the answer? From your comment, it seems like the more obvious choice is the incorrect one.

EDIT: By the more obvious one, I mean letting it cool and then adding milk. As the temperature difference between the coffee and the surrounding air is higher, the coffee cools down faster. Is this wrong?

That is the correct answer. Also there is a lot of potential nuance, like evaporation or when you take the milk out of the fridge or the specific temperatures of everything, but under realistic settings adding the milk late will get you the colder coffee.

Does the ceramic mug become a factor? As in adding milk first allows the milk to absorb heat that otherwise would have been stored in the mug too quickly and then radiate back into the liquid over time slowing its cooling curve. (I have no idea btw I just enjoy trying to come up with gotchas)

I'd say adding milk late is the best. You have coffee with volume and heat V and Q, milk v and q. Whatever you do, you'll get volume v+V and heat Q+q. Q can become Q' if you let it cool down first, or (Q+q)' if you add the milk first then let it cool down. But because milk is cold, the Q/V > (Q+q)/(V+v), hence the loss Q -> Q' is bigger than (Q+q) -> (Q+q)'.

The best answer though is to put the coffee on a plate, and forget about the milk.

Isn't the answer milk first, then let sit? You only have 2 minutes, so if you're adding the milk after 2 minutes have already elapsed, then you've already exceeded the time limit, meaning the final measurement would take place before the milk is even poured in.

Adding the milk second is colder.

The bigger the temp difference the more cooling. So by putting the milk in right away you make the temp difference between the surroundings and the coffee smaller = less cooling over your 2 mins.

I like puzzles with a satisfying answer

Parent is complaining about being technically hotter because the time the temperature is read for logging is at 120seconds.

I notice this on HN more than places like reddit and Mastodon.

I think it's a benefit when writing requirements and programming to specs. It's less of a benefit when having a freeform discussion.

Simple Bench goes in this direction: https://simple-bench.com/

Yet Another Benchmark, great I love benchmarks(!) but, will this page be kept up2date?

Yes, permanently. Sonnet 3.7 is already number one in the ranking. Grok3 has no API yet.

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