Kitchen Physics And The World Around Us

       In the last blog you must have met with our “peaceful” Dragon. She loves cooking but she is bothered all the time by the failing appliances of her kitchen that I have to mend  always (poor me) and I let her know of the kitchen physics that keeps me safe:D.

Me: "Good Morning Dragon! Is everything okay?"

Dragon: “Yup”

Me: “It seems you are in a hurry. What’s up?”

Dragon: “I am late and I’ll have to reach office soon and today everything was so messed up plus I suffered an electric shock”

Me: “Aw, why? What messed up?”

Dragon: “My water heater, I shouldn’t have used this old wicked thing.”

Me: “Okay I’ll see to it but why are you stirring your nonstick pan so vigorously with steel spoon, it might damage it.”

Dragon: “Why non stick cookware should not be stirred with steel spoons?”

Me: “See Dragon, Nonstick cookware is made of aluminum and related alloy very much like ordinary cookware, but what makes them different is the special coating of Teflon on its surface. Teflon is a polymer and not metal which is very stable towards high temperature and it gives the cookware the property of non stickiness.

If nonstick cookware be stirred with steel spoons, steel being harder than Teflon puts scratches on it and with time the Teflon coating wears away thus the “non stick” property of the nonstick goes and it becomes useless."

Dragon: "Um okay, but how is hardness related to the scratches made?"

Me: "Good question Dragon; a hard substance can produce scratches on a soft substance. Let us for example take the instance of our finger nails and wax…can you tell me which one is harder?"

Dragon: “Obviously our finger nail; mine is harder than yours though.”

(Dragon smiled victoriously). 

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Physics in Dragon's Kitchen

 Tomatoes, Potatoes, Oils in Kitchen, sound fine, Now what about Physics in kitchen. (This blogger must have gone crazy, he takes oven for a nuclear reactor!) Nope, I am not crazy and yes there is kitchen physics along with kitchen chemistry; Although, the later is far more popular. Now, let us turn our attention towards the Big Boss in Kitchen (She is no ordinary human being but a full fledged yet "peaceful" Dragon ) ...And what she has to tell us about Kitchen Physics.

Me: "Hey Dragon! it's late afternoon what are you innovating there there so long...is something special delicacy is to be prepared?"   

Dragon: "Yes! delicacies are being prepared, but hey I am getting difficulties with my kitchen appliances that keep on failing all the time."

Me: "They must be scared of you lolz, why what's up?"

Dragon: "See this time my gas lighter has failed, I wonder why... perhaps it's battery has gone out"  

Me: "Lemme look at the lighter you've got... Lol your lighter don't need batteries, Now can you tell me  how electric sparks are generated even if there is no batteries there"

Dragon: "Because I am standing near it!! DUH"

Just look at her simplicity, she thinks it works because she is near, may be she thinks there's some hmmm factor.

Then, I tried to explain her the Kitchen Physics about the lighter

Me: "See Dragon, many of us don't know that the electric sparks made by portable gas lighters are not driven by batteries. A peculiar principle of physics is associated with it, it is known as "piezoelectric property". What happens is, by the virtue of piezoelectric property some crystals like quartz tend to develop a voltage across it when it is deformed by mechanical pressure. Now such voltages can really be very high like in the order of thousands of volts.  In the piezoelectric-ignition lighters a spring hammer is used to strike a quartz crystal which results in a sudden deformation of the crystal followed by a voltage of several thousand volts, this is then led to the spark knobs by connecting wires and we get sparks.

Look at its internal construction to know it better"

Dragon :"I've understood a lot"

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