oatmeal from concentrate

Did you ever realize that it's possible to turn granola back into warm, comforting oatmeal simply by drowning it in hot water? Well, now you do. (And now you are probably wondering, like I did, "why didn't I think of that before?")

So, at work, I eat oatmeal in my aluminum (I think, or rather, some alloy thereof...) travel coffee mug. (Indeed, I am known by some as the crazy girl that eats oatmeal from her travel mug. One of the people recently pulled to our project from elsewhere said, upon being introduced to me, "oh, I know her, she'd come downstairs to clean the oatmeal from her coffee mug, because the soap brush was missing from the kitchen on her floor." Great.)

Anyhow, I was cleaning my travel mug out this morning, by filling it up with (really) hot water from the coffee machine. Immediately after it was full, I began using my spoon to scrape along the top of the cup. But as I was scraping, the pitch of the scratching kept increasing, for several seconds, up to a certain point. Now, my only guess is that this was caused by the metal heating up in response to the arrival of the hot water.

So I then wondered: why does heating metal make it give off a higher-pitched sound when scratched?

I do not have an explanation yet. (I'm sure I probably should...but ah well.) Attempts at such explanation are more than welcome.


And now for a moment of zen:

"sun in the sky, you know how i feel
breeze driftin by, you know how i feel
and i'm feeling good
...
dragonfly out in the sun, you know what i mean, don't ya know
butterflies all having fun, you know what i mean
sleep in peace once day is done, that's what i mean
and this old world is a new world
and a bold world
for me"

--"Feeling Good", as performed by Nina Simone