Abstract
Cooking, apart from anything else, is simply mixing ingredients (sometimes in a specific sequence) and heating them carefully in order to enable inter-diffusion of structures and molecules, as well as the partial breakdown of cellulose and other molecules to enable easier digestion of nutrients. Let’s first see what physical phenomena exist in these raw ingredients, starting with the most basic: water.
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Notes
- 1.
Gases are compressible, but liquids are almost completely incompressible, except when they contain dissolved gases, and transmit forces extremely fast.
- 2.
The whole process is very complicated, but it is the basis of energy production in a body.
- 3.
The amount of heat input to convert a given mass of liquid to steam. We’ll say a lot more about this when discussing the way fridges work and other issues.
- 4.
The amount of energy required to convert all the liquid to gas.
- 5.
The main difference between green and black tea is the extent of oxidation of these catechins in the tea leaves, which produce dark theaflavin and thearubigin.
- 6.
Due to water’s high surface tension.
- 7.
Mostly gamma rays from Co-60 or Cs-137 isotopes and X-rays from electron beam irradiation of a copper target.
- 8.
If you want to lose weight, you could do worse than to read voraciously, carry out intricate mathematics, and solve difficult puzzles.
- 9.
The widespread misunderstanding (or misinformation) that has convinced people to avoid natural fat and butter has forced companies to add too much sugar and salt to ready meals and snacks to improve their taste. Without some type of lipid (fat), all food has little taste.
- 10.
If there is sufficient humidity, static electricity that builds up on insulating materials is easily dissipated to ground since tap or rain water is slightly electrically conducting. But in a very dry environment static electricity builds up in the air and on particles and can only be dissipated by arcing across to ground.
- 11.
I am referring to advanced, “fine” ceramic knives made of zirconia (ZrO2) and/or alumina (Al2O3), not the cheap coloured metal (fake “ceramic”) ones.
- 12.
It can be cut easily, but explodes and burns fiercely in contact with oxygen in the air due to exothermic oxidation.
- 13.
The actual mechanism of “interference” with the lattice is quantum mechanical in nature and not fully understood, yet.
- 14.
A small, bonded “bi-metallic sandwich strip,” which bends to one side because one metal expands more than the other, thereby breaking the circuit. We’ll discuss it again later when we look at kettles and other kitchen appliances.
- 15.
Measured in N/m, i.e., force per unit length of contact. Water has the highest surface tension of all normal liquids (0.07 N/m).
- 16.
Actually, they are both supersaturated solutions of short polymers.
- 17.
Strictly speaking, ketchup is pseudoplastic-thixotropic and cream is rheopectic-thixotropic, but let’s not go into too much detail.
- 18.
Honey’s viscosity and temperature determine its laminar-turbulent boundary.
- 19.
Made of nano-crystalline calcium with a little magnesium carbonate and a few thousand pores.
- 20.
Its special properties are apparently due to a “stereoelectronic effect” where the electron orbitals between the atoms overlap synergistically.
- 21.
The current world record holder is Hafthor Bjornsson from Iceland, with a deadlift of 501 kg. Beyond strong.
- 22.
About 150 million N/m2 or 150 megapascal (MPa). More than most woods.
- 23.
I should know—I’ve had quite a few encounters with octopuses while snorkelling.
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Vekinis, G. (2023). A Physics Cornucopia. In: Physics in the Kitchen. Copernicus Books . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-34407-7_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-34407-7_3
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