I dunno, my mother and father are both amazing scientists (chemist and physicist) and my house was always ridiculously clean and full of delicious gormet food. (No maid or anything)
With all due respect, mended meanderer, there's a good deal of math involved in cooking. Measuring is all math, and anyone who tries to double or halve a recipe needs to be fluent in fractions. Granted, I've never found the need for applied calculus while making bread (thank heaven! for my last calc class was 20 years ago, and I can't remember a thing!), but basic arithmetic skills are a must. (I agree with you about the chemistry, though.)
say you threw your food into water when you put the water on the stove, but the recipe calls for the food to be added when the water is at a boil. How much sooner do you take it out? There's a calculus cooking question for you, once you define a few parameters.
I, for one am a great cook with no math skills. Measuring schmeasuring, just throw shit in a pan and taste it. This graphic makes me feel better about the whole thing.
More subtly, since the curve is concave, the "optimization point" is a balance between the two. Therefore, its more efficient to do one or the other, not both.
Most of the scientists I know (myself included) cook often and keep a clean kitchen. I've always thought that cooking was much like doing experiments with the exception being that I am able to eat the results :)
Life is too short to eat boring food! Cooking is such a great adventure! Cleanup can be a bit of a pain, but like so much in life, anything worth having is worth the effort.
This site is a little project that lets me make fun of some things and sense of others.
I use it to think a little more relationally without resorting to doing actual math.
20 comments:
Unfortunately, that's a one-way relationship...
So true!(says me, a chemist with a sink full of dirty dishes).
Well maybe with regard to cleaning, but cooking is all science with a little math thrown in like salt and pepper, merely to taste.
This only applies until you hack a Roomba.
I dunno, my mother and father are both amazing scientists (chemist and physicist) and my house was always ridiculously clean and full of delicious gormet food. (No maid or anything)
You have no idea who I am, but I like your site very, very much.
http://christinadownloaded.squarespace.com/downloads/2007/8/7/spreading-the-love.html
With all due respect, mended meanderer, there's a good deal of math involved in cooking. Measuring is all math, and anyone who tries to double or halve a recipe needs to be fluent in fractions. Granted, I've never found the need for applied calculus while making bread (thank heaven! for my last calc class was 20 years ago, and I can't remember a thing!), but basic arithmetic skills are a must.
(I agree with you about the chemistry, though.)
say you threw your food into water when you put the water on the stove, but the recipe calls for the food to be added when the water is at a boil. How much sooner do you take it out?
There's a calculus cooking question for you, once you define a few parameters.
I, for one am a great cook with no math skills. Measuring schmeasuring, just throw shit in a pan and taste it. This graphic makes me feel better about the whole thing.
Sam, you're scaring me.
I think it means the more you study math and science, the less likely you will have to cook and clean
More subtly, since the curve is concave, the "optimization point" is a balance between the two. Therefore, its more efficient to do one or the other, not both.
You clearly know nothing about science, math, or cooking.
me, a nanoscience phd candidate does most of the cooking and cleaning
my wife, with an MFA, does a two hour commute
to every law...
Most of the scientists I know (myself included) cook often and keep a clean kitchen. I've always thought that cooking was much like doing experiments with the exception being that I am able to eat the results :)
Val: I agree with you.
Life is too short to eat boring food! Cooking is such a great adventure! Cleanup can be a bit of a pain, but like so much in life, anything worth having is worth the effort.
The best cooks I know say, "Cooking is an art, baking is a science." So I guess I'd agree with today's graph.
When cleaning, however, some basic chemistry can be helpful. Knowing not to mix bleach with ammonia, for example...
Only if you don't think very hard about any of the four, I guess.
... says the homeschooling homemaking mother of three with a PhD in chemical engineering.
haha, nice relationship! =D
Oh, i have to show this to my husband. Hopefully he'll buy it. :)
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