Reactions is a YouTube channel produced by the American Chemical Society and PBS Digital Studios. The videos in the channel focus on explaining how chemistry concepts as they relate to things we see every day or to interesting “what if” scenarios. Recently, Reactions published a video to explain how much tea it would take to turn Boston Harbor into tea.

In How Much Tea Would It Take to Turn Boston Harbor Into Tea? viewers learn how much tea was dumped into Boston Harbor during the Boston Tea Party, how tea diffuses in water, and the math behind calculating how many tea bags it would take to turn Boston Harbor into a giant cup of tea.

Applications for Education
Ask your students to attempt to calculate how many tea bags they would need to turn Boston Harbor into tea before showing them this video.

When I was teaching U.S. History I had more than a couple of students ask if the water tasted like tea after the Boston Tea Party. My answer was always a quick “no.” Now I have the math to support that answer.