With all of us out there who are trying to cut back on the amount of fats we eat, a particular question keeps popping up around dinner time:

Do you want your (insert tasty food here) baked or fried?

Years ago, I wouldn’t even DREAM of choosing baked chicken over fried.  But time is catching up with me and good decisions NOW will be rewarded in the future.  Nevertheless…

WHICH METHOD BEST COOKS OUR FOOD – BAKING OR FRYING?

Again, we need to review the three main ways that thermal energy can DIFFUSE through our food during cooking:

And since we will definitely be looking at the four main concepts of science, we probably should look at them again too:

Radiation is the transfer of waves of energy from every ATOM in the universe.

Conduction is the transfer of thermal energy between two or more objects that are touching each other.

Convection transfers energy through fluids (this means a gas or a liquid.)

It is important to note that all of these methods of heat DIFFUSION follow the LAW OF CONSERVATION.  We never create or destroy any thermal energy when we are cooking.

HERE WE GO!

In our battle between baking and boiling, we learned how our food uses these methods of DIFFUSION to heat our foods within an oven:

Baking uses radiation and convection to DIFFUSE heat into our food.  Thermal energy is released from the electrical coils or gas flames of an oven in the form of radiation which heats up the food.  In addition, some of this radiation DIFFUSES into the metal walls which heats up the air inside the oven itself.  This is how convection heats the food within the oven.  As the air (a fluid) is heated, it DIFFUSES some of its heat into the food as well.

MMMMM….  FRIED GOODNESS!

The process of frying uses a different method of heat transfer to heat our food – Conduction.

In order to fry any food, however, you need something to keep your food from sticking to the pan.  Therefore, you need some form of fat to heat up in your pan before you add your food.

The thermal energy that is absorbed by the pan DIFFUSES into the ATOMS of the food.  Much like with baking at a very high temperature, you have to be very careful that you do not burn the outside of your food while the inside remains raw and uncooked!

SO WHO IS THE WINNER?

In the battle between baking and frying, I would have to say that for thin cuts of meat – frying is the way to go!  The DENSITY of the metal pan provides a much better rate of conduction than the DENSITY of the air within the oven.  With a greater number of ATOMS within each inch of the pan (as compared to the air in the oven), there is more DIFFUSION of heat into the food.

Plus, you can always heat up your herbs and seasonings within the hot oil before frying your food.  This REALLY adds some good flavor to your food.

However, you cannot cook a whole turkey by frying it in a pan!  This large piece of meat needs slow cooking in an environment that is surrounded by thermal energy to be most effective.  Therefore, the oven would be the best bet in this case!

Don’t get me wrong, I love to bake; however, hands down I prefer frying any day!  Just don’t tell my doctor!!!

Learn more about physical science concepts (and many more) in the Classic Science: Series for the Family and be certain to come back every Thursday or subscribe to The Blog of Mr.Q to learn more about how to teach science during breakfast, lunch, and dinner!

So far, we have seen traditional ovens go against microwave ovens AND the art of baking doing battle with boiling.  Now it’s time we focus our attention on two methods of cooking which rely solely on a large amount of water:

This week, we watch as two heavy weights battle it out.  Our reigning champion BOILING is about to go a few rounds with a new opponent…

STEAMING

These two opponents will be using all of the four main concepts of science as they fight it out this week…

…and the three main ways to DIFFUSE thermal energy through our food during cooking:

Radiation is the transfer of waves of energy from every ATOM in the universe.

Conduction is the transfer of thermal energy between two or more objects that are touching each other.

Convection transfers energy through fluids (this means a gas or a liquid.)

Don’t forget!  All of these methods of heat DIFFUSION follow the LAW OF CONSERVATION.  We never create or destroy any thermal energy when we are cooking.

LET’S GET READY TO RUMBLE!  BRING ON THE BOILING!

We learned previously that boiling only uses convection to DIFFUSE heat into our food.  Heat is DIFFUSED into a fluid-filled container, and as the container absorbs thermal energy it DIFFUSES some of this heat into the fluid.  Since the food you are cooking is completely surrounded by this fluid, it too absorbs thermal energy through the process of convection very well!

STEAMING HAS A SECRET WEAPON

Much like its opponent, steaming uses convection to DIFFUSE heat into our food.  However, you may be thinking that liquid water has a greater DENSITY than water vapor… And you are correct!

The “trick” with steaming requires us to look a little deeper at what is going during the creation of steam.

I’m certain you understand that it takes a large amount of thermal energy to turn liquid water into a gas.  And as thermal energy DIFFUSES into the liquid water, its ATOMS vibrate faster and faster until water molecules break free from each other and evaporate into the atmosphere.

However, what have we learned about the LAW OF CONSERVATION as it pertains to energy?  Can we destroy energy?  No way!  So all that thermal energy that was DIFFUSED into our water molecules HAS to go somewhere!

Some of this energy is DIFFUSED onto the food that the steam is heating.  However, the “secret weapon” of steaming is that some of this energy is released when the super hot water vapor turns back into a liquid!

It’s a ONE-TWO PUNCH for steaming!  Not only does steaming DIFFUSE energy directly by bouncing its molecules into the food, it also releases energy on the surface of the food as its molecules slow down and turn back into a liquid!  This is known as the energy of vaporization.

AND THE WINNER IS…

Boiling has some serious skills.  There’s no doubt about it.  However, I have to give steaming the win this round.  It’s not a knock out, but the one-two punch is pretty darn impressive!  Congrats steaming!

Learn more about physical science concepts (and many more) in the Classic Science: Series for the Family and be certain to come back every Thursday or subscribe to The Blog of Mr.Q to learn more about how to teach science during breakfast, lunch, and dinner!

Last week we explored the three main ways that thermal energy can DIFFUSE through our food during cooking:

Radiation is the transfer of waves of energy from every ATOM in the universe.

Conduction is the transfer of thermal energy between two or more objects that are touching each other.

Convection transfers energy through fluids (this means a gas or a liquid.)

Now it is time to see who wins between the push-button speed of microwave ovens and the all-time favorite – the conventional oven!

Naturally, we will be using the four main concepts of science within our study of these two culinary devices:

It is important to note that all of these methods of heat DIFFUSION follow the LAW OF CONSERVATION.  We never create or destroy any thermal energy when we are cooking.  However, a lot of thermal energy can be lost into the environment.  You can notice this whenever you get near a hot oven… the air around the oven is warm because thermal energy is escaping into the environment!

You learned last week how the tradition oven works to bake our food:

Baking uses two of these forms of heat transfer:  Radiation and Convection. Thermal energy is released from the electrical coils or gas flames of an oven in the form of radiation which heats up the food.  In addition, some of this radiation DIFFUSES into the metal walls which heats up the air inside the oven itself.  This is how convection heats the food within the oven.  As the air (a fluid) is heated, it DIFFUSES some of its heat into the food as well.

Microwave ovens do something entirely different in order to cook our food.  In fact, this kitchen appliance only uses radiation to heat our food.

To be perfectly honest with you, I could probably spend pages working on how a microwave oven works.  So let me give you the shortened version:

A microwave sends out billions of waves of energy (radiation) towards your food every second.  The water molecules within your food are vibrated back and forth by these waves very quickly.  With all of these ATOMS in constant motion, they bounce into all of the other molecules in the food.  This motion creates a lot of friction, which in turn, increases the amount of thermal energy within the food.  It doesn’t take long for this large amount of thermal energy to DIFFUSE throughout the food!

Friction is a force that is created between two objects that are rubbed together.  The greater the friction between two objects, the greater the thermal energy that is created!  Friction is the reason your hands warm up when you rub them together.

To sum this up:  Foods that contain water are heated very quickly by a microwave!

SO WHY IS THE CONTAINER INSIDE MY MICROWAVE ALWAYS SO HOT?  IT IS NOT MADE OF WATER!

A microwave may easily heat up your food; however, it does not heat up the container at all (or the air.)  The bowls you place in a microwave are heated as thermal energy with the ATOMS is DIFFUSED into the container because of the process of conduction.

SO WHICH METHOD IS BETTER?

Both methods have their good and bad points.  Microwaves can cook food much faster because they are not slowed down by the DENSITY of the food being cooked.  By this I mean that microwave radiation can reach deeper into the food than the radiation produced by a traditional oven.

However, since a microwave can heat up our food much faster, it also can dry out our food much faster too!  It also cannot turn our Thanksgiving Day turkey a golden brown color because a microwave cannot make the surface of our food any warmer than its interior.  This is very important if you want to brown your baked foods!

So who wins this battle?  I say they BOTH win.  A traditional oven is best suited for slow cooking and baking our foods to a juicy, tender result.  And the microwave is best for reheating or preheating foods that don’t require long amounts of cooking.

Personally, I wouldn’t want to live without BOTH of them!

Learn more about physical science concepts (and many more) in the Classic Science: Series for the Family and be certain to come back every Thursday or subscribe to The Blog of Mr.Q to learn more about how to teach science during breakfast, lunch, and dinner!

We have focused a lot of time and energy on the science behind certain foods.  However, there is a tremendous amount of information to be gained by studying the tools we use to create our breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

This week we are going to begin a journey into several different methods of preparing food.  Before we do, we need to review a few concepts:

We learned from our previous look at pizza that all ATOMS have a little energy in them AND they are always moving a little bit.  Scientists measure all of this movement and call it thermal energy.  And when thermal energy DIFFUSES heat. from a hot object into a colder object, scientists call this

This DIFFUSION of thermal energy can take place in three different ways:

Radiation is the transfer of waves of energy from every ATOM in the universe.

That’s right!  EVERYTHING in the universe gives off thermal energy.

Conduction is the transfer of thermal energy between two or more objects that are touching each other.

Convection transfers energy through fluids (this means a gas or a liquid.)

WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH BAKING OR BOILING?

Since the process of cooking REQUIRES the transfer of thermal energy into our food, these three methods of DIFFUSION are very important!

Baking uses two of these forms of heat transfer:  Radiation and Convection

Thermal energy is released from the electrical coils or gas flames of an oven in the form of radiation which heats up the food.  In addition, some of this radiation DIFFUSES into the metal walls which heats up the air inside the oven itself.  This is how convection heats the food within the oven.  As the air (a fluid) is heated, it DIFFUSES some of its heat into the food as well.

Boiling uses a single method to DIFFUSE heat into our food:  Convection

The role of convection to boil our food should be very easy to see.  Heat is DIFFUSED into a fluid-filled container.  As the container absorbs thermal energy, it DIFFUSES some of this heat into the fluid.  And, since the food you are cooking is completely surrounded by this fluid, it too absorbs thermal energy through the process of convection very well!

POP QUIZ TIME!

Which of the two methods do you believe are better at cooking your food – baking or boiling?

Need a hint?  It has something to do with DENSITY.

Both baking and boiling follow the LAW OF CONSERVATION as thermal energy is absorbed by our food.  No ATOMS are created or destroyed as our liquid cake batter transforms into a solid cake, or our solid potato boils into a squishy mush.

In addition, both methods use fluids to DIFFUSE thermal energy into the food; however, the DENSITY of water is much greater than the DENSITY of air.  Therefore, the fastest way to transfer thermal energy into our food is through boiling!

A small amount of water has more than a thousand times the number of ATOMS than are found in a same amount of air.  Since there are more heated ATOMS touching the boiling food as compared to the baked food, thermal energy DIFFUSES faster into the boiled food!

You prove this fact every time you reach into a hot oven.  Some of that thermal energy warms up your arm while you are taking a baked potato out of the oven.  But it does not burn you! However, I would not recommend sticking your hand in a pot of boiling water to retrieve a boiled potato!  That amount of DIFFUSION would definitely burn you badly!

So in the battle between baking and boiling, it is boiling that wins this round!  Nevertheless, even though the process of boiling may cook our food more efficiently, I think I’ll stick with baking my cakes and cookies nonetheless…

Learn more about physical science concepts (and many more) in the Classic Science: Series for the Family and be certain to come back every Thursday or subscribe to The Blog of Mr.Q to learn more about how to teach science during breakfast, lunch, and dinner!

I was blessed to have parents that were avid readers.  I’m not saying we were that family that went around the neighborhood quoting Shakespeare, but there was always something to read by my parents side at home.

Like most habits from parents, this one found its way into me at a very young age and has flourished over the years.

We are very lucky to live in a time where we can literally plug ourselves into nearly any book we want through an army of devices like the iPad, Kindle, Sony Reader, iPhones, or Androids.

Now don’t get me wrong, I know that most people cringe at the thought of sitting down with a cup of coffee and the warm glow of a portable electronic device to read some Thoreau.  (As would Thoreau himself; besides, where would he recharge his laptop out there in his cabin?)

For those of you who have checked out my Classic Science Textbooks, it is quite obvious I am a little biased towards eBooks.  This isn’t because I have some deep-rooted hatred for printed copies, I have simply embraced the world of eBooks/audiobooks and I would like to help you take a few baby steps in that direction this week.  I give you…

Project Gutenberg and LibriVox

Project Gutenberg is something you have to check out if you are looking for the classics!  This producer of free eBooks brings nearly every classic book in the public domain to your computer freely and easily.  With over 32,000 copies to choose from and an additional 100,000 from their affiliates, you have a virtual library at your fingertips 24 hours a day.

These books can be easily downloaded in a variety of ways to be uploaded into nearly all portable electronic devices.  Oh, and did I mention this was entirely free???

You can find Project Gutenberg at http://www.gutenberg.org There is no registration or sign up fees whatsoever!

Now if you thought THAT was cool, wait till you check out LibriVox!

I think LibriVox’s mission statement says it all:

LibriVox volunteers record chapters of books in the public domain and release the audio files back onto the net. Our goal is to make all public domain books available as free audio books.

Basically, LibriVox (http://librivox.org) is taking all of the 130,000+ books within Project Gutenberg’s library, converting them into audio books, and releasing them for free on the Internet.

I have fallen in love with this site.  Recently, I have just completed the audio translation of The Aeneid and will be starting The Prince by Machiavelli this week!

To most of us, nothing feels the same as having a book in our hands. I understand that.  Really I do.  But the older I get, and the more time I spend with my students, the more I see how these devices and the resources they have to offer can reach into their world and spark their curiosity.

For many of us, we grew up in a world without personal computers or cell phones.  But the younger generation has NEVER known a time without these devices.  They will embrace this technology in amazing ways and I love watching it unravel before my eyes.

I hope you will check out Project Gutenberg and LibriVox.  I am certain you and your family will truly love the ease and simplicity of a portable library.

And remember, not all of us who have a set of earphones in our ears at the grocery are rocking out with AC/DC.  Well, not ALWAYS….