Why are standard drinking cups shaped the way the are, wider on the top and more narrow toward the bottom?

Question

Wouldn’t it make more sense to have the cup be a consistent width throughout? Or, even make the cup wider at the bottom to make it more stable when sitting on a surface?

In: Engineering

Answer 1

The widening lip helps to prevent spillage/leakage from under/around your mouth, while also giving the container significantly more volume. The mouth of a standard pint glass is somewhere around a foot long. They also allow the containers to be compactly stored by stacking/tesselating them. These three advantages far outweigh any advantage other shapes have.