Yummy fried chicken

     And I'm back.  Ever just have crazy week where you have to tie up some lose ends?  Writing is a relaxant; it creates peace by giving my mind something else to think about.
     So I've been thinking recently that I'll never become famous in the blog world if I keep writing about thermodynamics.  Being the follower, or "second-hander", that I am, I need to do what the "in" crowd is doing.  Today, I'm going to write about food.  Since my camera is in the shop though, you'll need to use my words to imagine a succulent and moist meal.
     Let us discuss the science of frying on todays blog.  Frying is an delicious way to cook anything; it has been said that anything can made exponentially better by how much it is fried.  I myself was raised on fried chicken, mushrooms and pork, and I feel I am a better man for it.
      Do you know the difference between a chemical and physical change in chemistry?  To put us on the same page, I will define it.  A physical change is a change you can go back on, simply put.  Salt water, for instance, is a basic example of a physical change.  You can mix salt and water, but if you increase the temperature of the fluid to its boiling point  you can separate its components.  Specifically, the water becomes vapor and the salt stays behind.  Chemical changes are more permanent; the energy we introduce into the system fuel bonds between molecules.  This is something I wish I could explain to you in simple, easy terms.  Instead, I am going to just send you to this other website.
     But that was the old Aristotle.  The new blog doesn't want to talk about boring science shit.  We want sleek, elegant family friendly pizazz.  I want to know how to fry a turkey as big as my head.
     The first thing you need is a vat.  The next step is to fill the vat with delicious oil.  If you're like me, you're using oil that is more or less at "room temperature".  If you're like my dad, there is a very good chance that this oil is full of impurities.  These two factors are playing against you, amigo.  Even though you might have come across this shiny looking blog in a drunken stupor at three a.m. looking for fried food recipes, you're about to find that you'll have to wait a little longer for the oil to get up to temperature.  The first reason is due due to some mathematical mumbo-jumbo about surface area and heat.   I'm assuming you are using a Bayou Classic fryer, because you buy the first thing that pops up on Google.  In this case, the only part of your oil that is getting direct heat is about 104 square inches.  Compared to the 1350 cubic inches of oil you are trying to heat.  Your two dimensional attempt to heat a three dimensional area makes me laugh.
     After drinking more beer while intensely watching the thermometer, the oil will finally reach a temperature between 180 and 200 degrees Celsius. (Quick!  What is the absolute temperature of your oil?)  At this point, you need to place your whole chicken into the fryer.  If you drop it, there is an excellent chance that 392 degree Fahrenheit oil will splash on your clothes.  That is bad.  You should probably memorize the number for 911 before you start.
     Now for the cooking part.  The combination of energy and time is causing a chemical and physical change in the oil and chicken.  You are now an alchemist, but instead of creating something lame like a philosophers stone, you are creating fried chicken.  Let me say this again:  Fried is way better than regular.  This is mostly due to the process that is going on.
     As energy is applied in the form of heat to the chicken, changes are going on in the molecular level.  In chemistry we learn that this heat will cause the degradation of some molecular structures.  In physics we learn that a increase in temperature causes an increase in movement of molecules.  In the case of protein structures, this increase in entropy is causing the atoms that make up the molecule to shake itself free from its chemical bonds.  As the chemical bonds break down, the energetic atom is now free.
     On a macro level, this break down of bonds is causing fat to leak from the chicken into the oil.  This break down starts at 38 degrees c.  At the temperature we are working at, there is a much higher breakdown of the bonds, causing a much higher fat loss.  This release of the fat into the oil is causing the oil to go through its own changes, the most significant of which is causing the boiling point to increase due to the increase of carbons. This increase in the boiling point means you can raise the oil to even higher temperatures, causing a faster cooking time and crispier skin.
     This higher temp also supplies more thermal energy to break stronger bonds.  Since it has the energy to break stronger bonds, the atoms and molecules release have the energy to create stronger bonds.  At this point, people will begin to argue that many of the chemicals created are unhealthy.  They are also savory, and can create visually appealing changes.  As your chicken begins to brown, you know it's ready.  Stick a thermometer in it.  If it's reached an internal temp of 71 degrees Celsius, then you have created enough heat to kill off any dangerous bacteria.
     Well, looks my foray into the cooking blog world didn't go so well.  I must say that the more I do this, the more my tolerance goes up for studying.  Hopefully I'm getting better at explaining this.  If anyone is out there, feel free to comment.       One last thing I want to mention.  As I was researching this, I came across an article on raw foods.  The first thing I will say is this: wash your foods.  As was stated above, the increase in temperature causes the break down of chemical bonds and the formations of new chemicals.  If there is any foreign substances present, logically speaking this introduces more elements and could cause the formation of very unhealthy chemicals.  I'm not sold on the idea of vegan-ism or the raw food movement, but it does bring up a good point about cooking pesticides.  I'm going to read the research it cites.  For now, au revoir to all of my imaginary friends in the void.




This article was inspired by this paper

Busy week.  Ended one job, moved, and started another in the span of 24 hours.  I want to post something about the number e and some more about thermodynamics though.
     
   

Thoughts before bed

     Here I lay, a geek that needs to wake up early.  I piss away the hours and feed my insomnia by drafting my blog post, reading the works of the scientific masters, and thinking about C.P. Snow.
     C.P. Snow was recently introduced to me as I scoured the Internet for works on entropy.  Tonight I am reading "The Two Cultures", which seems to be his most referenced work.  This post is not about the essay, mainly because I'm only two pages into it at the moment and really need to head to bed soon so I can wake up early tomorrow.  Writing fills some strange indescribable need, and it helps clarify thoughts.
     What I've read so far has got me thinking.  He's said that there is a widening gap between the scientific intellectuals and the literary intellectuals.  This seems to be everyones focus, so references to the book end here.  However, I want to talk about art and science.
     Sometimes, it seems that so many groups of thought can not get along.  Christians who believe in the big-bang start by saying "Now I know it sounds odd. . ."  Apparently, since I study science, I can't believe in ghosts and spirits.  I read abstracts and scientific papers, but they certainly are not "good literature."
     The funny thing is, artists and writers are why I got into science.  My favorite artist in high school was M.C. Escher because his art was based on math and logic.  If it wasn't for the work of Arthur C. Clarke, I may not have gotten back into science at all.  My first "teachers" after dropping out of college were webcomics like "Irregular Webcomics", SMBC, and XKCD.  Sometimes, when I want to look for inspiration, I watch Vihart on youtube.  If my one and only exposer to science was traditional schooling, I would be the most boring person in the world.
     The more I read, the more I find.  Today, while reading James Maxwell, I was introduced to Lucretius, a roman philosopher who wrote a large poem outlining the works of the Greek masters.
     For the most part, popular culture confuses scientific principles. For every Jules Verne, there are a hundred or so authors explaining how to improve your life by using the many-worlds interpretation to propel yourself to a world.  Trying to sift through them to get to the facts is a god-damn chore.  Don't forget about the people who do understand the theories, but present them to push their own agendas, political or religious.
     It is to easy to get cynical.  Too many people try to paint pictures of an "Us vs Them" view of life.  I see as many people working together as I see people fighting.  For now I'll ignore the motivations; I want to sleep tonight, not hate people.  Art helps progress.  The best can use it as a tool to communicate ideas to everyone.  These ideas can further understanding and help form new ideas.
    When stuff starts to look cliché, it is time to sleep.  Goodnight all of you beautiful shapes in the void.

Fire on high!

 

The deeper I go into Thermodynamics, the more it begins to look like a wonderland.

In the past, I've mechanics explain to me the principles of physics using engines as an example. They could do this without using math or any advanced physics speak, but they still explained it perfectly. We can learn physics without math, especially if we spend 10,000 hours working with the laws in the physical world. The math is doorway to a different world, however; a Narnia or Wonderland where we can learn how to control what those laws can do. Math is the language we use to share the workings of the world, and we can use it create and discover new things.

Math can be a terrifying sight to the newcomer though. It's full of things like imaginary numbers, logarithms, and differential equations. Statistical Mechanics is no different really. I'm focusing today on Boltzmann's entropy equation, which is the product of a constant and the natural logarithm of probability. Feel free to scratch your head.

Ludwig Boltzmann was one the first people to give real weight to the idea of atoms. In works like Statistical Mechanics, he discusses how large complex mechanisms are made up of smaller individual processes. This lead to the idea that something like entropy was the result of the random movements of sub-atomic particles. He derived his equation entropy is equal to k(lnW) to explain the motion of this particles. K is what is now called Boltzmann's constant, W is the potential movement of the particles, and ln is a natural logarithm. Now everybody in the room say it with me: WTF? It's a logarithm of probability? Seriously? Shit.

This is that scary thing I talked about earlier. After staring at this for a couple of weeks now, I can say that logarithms are not hard if you understand exponents. Log 10 is equal to 1. Another way to say this is 10 to the first power is equal to 10. ln is a natural log, so instead of base 10, it's base of e.

Now that you have a very basic rundown on logarithms, it's kind of easy to see why we need it for entropy. If entropy increases due to energy, and some of the increase in energy is due to entropy, then the growth of entropy is exponential. This exponent is dependent on the potential movement of molecules. It is potential because we have no way of predicting their exact movements as the energy increases. It's that drunken walk in probability. What I'm trying to get at is this: the growth is exponential due to the crazy movements of some sub-atomic particles. We find this exponent by taking the log of their potential energy.

OK, deep breath. The total entropy comes when you multiply this exponent with Boltzmann's constant. The constant is the relationship of of absolute temperature and kinetic energy in a molecule of a perfect gas. But really, it's (1.3807 times 10 to the negitive 23 power) joules per kelvin. Isn't that simple? If you just combine all these factors, you can chart the growth of entropy of an isolated system.

Back up a moment, isolated system? Yeah that's right, isolated system. The reason why you should be cursing Boltzmann and physics right now is because a truly isolated system is theortical. Boltzmann even says that in his paper. There is always another system that heat transfer is going on with, usually it's air. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why physics frustrates me sometimes. The equations that meant to be used with real things are based on theoretical things. I'm gonna stop and lie down before my brain explodes.

I can't stay mad though. This hobby helps my understanding of the world. I wonder if this writings will help anyone else.

Small alien worlds

     I'm not in a thermodynamic mode tonight.  Partly because I do not have a good idea what to do, partly because I've been working some extra hours, and partly because I'm just not in the mode.  On this fine evening, I'll just talk and write to see where I go.  Nobody reads this thing anyway.
     Let's start off in distant land.  It's a good place to start because books like "Through the Looking Glass" and "Planiverse" used to intrigue me.  I'll keep this simpler in more of a "Flatworld" style.
     I'm imagining a 3D dimensional world, but  farther away from their star then we are from ours.  This would cause a world with more light weight gas present in the atmosphere.  Not something as big as Jupiter, mind you, but still bigger than us. The flora and fauna that live there would be invisible.  Well, to us at least.  In this imaginary world, since more light get there, it blocks out the visible light spectrum.  Light still bounces off of these objects, so their eyes would see other wavelengths.  I'm curious to know what we would look like to someone who could only see as high as radio.
     Can't stop myself from finding the calculations of the size of the planet.  Hey, if you're bored and want to build a mind planet, check this shit out.  I'm imagining my planet to have a 10,000 km radius.  Here's a good article if you want to know your planet's mass.  Anyways, the fauna here are built stockier, due to higher gravity.
     The deeper and deeper I dive into the equations and find the relationships between one thing and another, it does seem that we were brought here by a delicate ratio.  But what would have happened if ratio changed?  It would affect the sum of the parts, for sure.  They've found life in extreme places on earth though, so why not somewhere where the situation is different?  Imagining a world with different rules is fun, but imagining an alien world with the same rules as ours seems so fascinating.
     If any explorers find their way here, I'd be curious to know about any alien worlds you can create.  I'll be back to talking about thermodynamics next week.

The third law.

     Well, I've had my coffee, and I've stretched mentally, so let us get the ball rolling on this paper.
     The Third Law of Thermodynamics intrigues me.  The zeroth law has been around since before Thermodynamics had been called Thermodynamics.  There are miles of writing on the first and second laws.  But the third one is just there.
     Just think for a moment.  If there is energy is in a system, what is the temperature of the system when there is no energy?  I mean absolutely no energy.  The lowest temperature on the Celsius scale is -273.15 degrees.  When you can measure a state at that temperature, then there is no energy.  There is no processes that the energy can create.  And there is temperature scale that uses this point as zero.  The Kelvin scale measures the absolute temperature of a system.
     The story goes that  heat is created by the movement of molecules.  As a state cools, the molecules begin to move less and less, thereby creating less heat and less entropy.  They begin line themselves up into a structure, creating a crystal.  In a perfect crystal, the entropy is equal to zero.
    Here's where the fun begins.  Mathematically speaking, you can't reach zero using a finite number of processes.  If there was a gas at 310 K and we want to cool it down, we could introduce a cooler state for the heat to transfer to.  So, let us whip out our perfect crystal.  The problem is, the crystal will only help bring the gas down to equilibrium, it won't cool it down to Absolute zero completely.  Ignoring entropy for the moment, let us say that equilibrium is the mean of the two temperatures, or 155 K.  To actually bring it down to 0 K, you would need a state lower than Absolute zero; in this case it would need to be -310 K.  As stated, it can't go lower than zero, because there is no heat due to complete inactivity from the molecules.
     So, let us instead figure that we have a cabinet full of these damn crystals.  And we keep dividing the gas in half over and over.  The problem is 0 multiplied by any number is still zero, and no number can be divided to equal zero.
     As I'm writing this, I'm also catching up on convergent series.  Quite honestly, this will by stopping point because this is my limit.  According to most of what I can find, a series can not converge to zero.  And since I'm learning as much as I am sharing, I've hit my confusion point because it seems there are some proofs that claim I can reach zero.   Goodbye, my imagiary friends.  Dinners calls.

The Insane Mathmatical Ramblings of a Madman.

     Wow, so here it is, my imaginary amigos, a joke in my head that somehow gained momentum and never stopped.  I gonna say right here this may not be safe for work.
     Entropy, sex, and the unseen world.  The discussion that's been in our minds for years.  The questions you never had, and the answers that are non-sequesters.
     Sex, sex, and more sex.  It seems that those of us that think a lot about it are not having enough of it.  It seems fitting that a blogger that talks about thermodynamics is going to think about sex, because it's safe to assume if he has enough free time to look for thermodynamic equations, he's probably suffering from a lack of sexual stimulation.
     Energy, heat, friction, and other principles come into play during sex.  And if I add enough equations into a discussion on the topic, it makes it seem like I've done work for the last week as opposed to watching porn.
     Imagine for a moment you are a young American Philosophy student on a back packing trip through Europe to "find yourself".  You're a philosophy student because you're imaginary and theoretical.  And you meet a German Engineer with low standards during this trip.  During this tale, feel free to fill any plot holes.
     While the two of you are doing your thing, keep in mind that one or both of you are doing work by the scientific definition of the word.  That is, one or both of you is moving.  And energy is the cause of that work.  A lack of energy would make this process that much harder.  What I want the first step to be is to define terms.  While you're busy plowing this person, I want you to be able to accurately figure out the science behind this.
     Since you're American, naturally all your measurements are done in imperial.  But you are in Europe where you have landed a scientist of sorts, so I ask of you to make a good impression.  Use metric.  And protection, but I hope that already occurred to you.
     I am going to make a lot of assumptions here, because there's a lot of information I don't know about you or your partner.  And I'm not all together positive on how to quantify your energy.  But I will say that your partner there, is full of Joules.  And the force they're using, well, that's Newtons.  You could say they're using Joules to make Newtons.
     And now that we've defined some units, we can begin to examine how the first two laws apply to sex.
     From a design perspective, this act is fairly straight forward; insert Tab A into Slot A.  From a psychological perspective, people are stupid and Tab A only goes into Slot A if we're lucky.  Biologically speaking, we are not design for the latter.  Before you go sticking your Tab into random Slots, think about the conservation of energy principle.
     Your potential energy is becoming kinetic energy.  And that kinetic energy is motions of your hips as they move back and forth.  As Tab A goes into Slot whatever, it is going to create friction.  The friction comes as the two planes move past each other, and if your friend there starts moving, then as the opposing force increases, so does the friction.  As said before, the energy has to go somewhere, and if there's a lot of friction, there is going to be a lot of heat.    You can prevent this build up of heat with the simple application of lube.
     Your probably noticing a lot of heat now in fact.  You're young, so you can have a crazy hectic sex life.  If you focus your attention inward, you might notice that your heart is getting a work right now and your temperature is rising.  That's normal, don't worry about it.  That heat your feeling is entropy.  And if your finding that your mind is wandering or math makes your partner really turned on, you can begin to figure out what entropy is.
     Entropy is the measure of the energy being dispersed.  It's energy you had, but wasn't used to drive your hips into your partner repeatedly.  It's the energy that you've lost through heat.
     Try shouting "The amount of energy being dispersed in a system is equal to the highest temperature divided by the lowest temperature!" a couple times to get your friend going.  Now you can use this statement to continue your problem solving.  In this case, either one of you can be the thermodynamic systems this equation refers to.  You and your Germanic friend started your little rendezvous with temperatures of 37 degrees Celsius.  With all the energy you've been using, it's probably safe to assume that the temperatures have gone up.  But your going to have to get some hard core data here.  I need you to take the temperature of one of the systems.  I suggest inserting the thermometer vaginally and using it to get your partner off.
     Now you're going to use that number in the above equation.  I can try using math to guess the temperature, but I'm just going to say it's gone up by a degree, for the sake of sanity.  This will mean that you would have something that looks like 38 degrees c divided by 37 degrees c.  Or 1.027 joules.  Now get back to work, because sex is apparently making your brain work.  Maybe it's the increased blood flow.  Maybe your absorbing all of your partner's engineering knowledge.  Whatever the case, you need it because it's about to get intense.
     I can't really find information to help with what we are about to attempt.  Many engineers have tried, but none have written it down.  And in all honesty, you became a philosopher because the transitive property is the most math you could wrap your brain around.
     The first thing we must do is figure out what the absolute temperture of the system is.  To do this, we need to convert Celsius to kelvin.  We need a number to convert, of course.  When trying to figure out the entropy of steam, they use the absolute temperature of boiling water.  By that logic I've chosen 42 degrees Celsius, because if your body rises above that, you are in for some serious damage.  Let me repeat, if you or sex buddies temperature is 42 degrees Celsius or 107 degrees Fahrenheit, then stop and seek medical attention!  But that's impressive, quite honestly.
    Add 273.15 to the Celsius number to get the kelvin equivalent.  So now you know that heat stroke starts at 315.15 K.
     Here it is, the big finish.  The equation I came here to talk to you about today.  While your working towards your climax, think about this:  the change in entropy is equal to the dispersion of energy divided by the absolute temperature of the system.  You can shout out that or the answer as you climax.  I'll leave that decision to you.
     As the two of you try to reach equilibrium in your post-coital bliss,you might find yourself wondering why your so tired.  Your tired because of all the work you did, and I'm going to leave you with one more equation.  Work is equal to the difference in energy.  If you were energtic then and just barely awake now, then rest assured the answer to that equation is somewhere in the range of "a lot".  Unless we come up with real numbers, we'll never figure out how much work was done mathematically.  This makes the experiment void, and I'll need you to do it again.  If you worry that you'll die, don't.  According to the third law of thermodynamics, you'll never have zero energy.  According to some stories I've heard, your heart could explode.  But the decomposition happening would count as energy.  Just something to ponder until I get to the third law later.