Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Science/2024 January 4

= January 4 =

An odd math question
My friend gave me a math question to solve the other day, and it's pretty confusing. Can anybody solve this?

Suppose that the average chicken weighs 300 pounds and cooks a 700 degrees Celsius (1,292 degrees Fahrenheit) You want to cook a chicken that weighs a solid 412 pounds. You will have to change the cooking temperature to solve this. However, you are supplied with an infinite supply of lighters and an infinite supply of socks. Each lighter lasts for 12 minutes and 34 seconds, and the socks are made from yarn, mostly cotton. Your only assistance is an army of 29 orangutans that obey your every word. Come up with a method to cook this chicken to a medium rare. Show evidence and statistics that prove its success.

It's an absurd question, but I'd like to see if someone can solve this, or if it's even possible. I think that there are too many variables to logically figure out a solution. If it is, however, possible to solve, I would like to know. Thank you. Gyatt W Rizz (talk) 15:47, 4 January 2024 (UTC)
 * First: Never cook poultry (or pork) to "medium rare". Unless you want to run the risk of getting very sick. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 16:39, 4 January 2024 (UTC)
 * … excepting that thou then proceed to three. —Tamfang (talk) 01:21, 11 January 2024 (UTC)
 * Five, sir. DMacks (talk)
 * This is too difficult a problem for my poor brain so I asked Microsoft Edge and it pointed me to a site on cooking chicken. I put in that the chicken weighed 412 pounds and it told me to cook it for 171 hours and 40 minutes. Cooking at one lighter at a time will take 820 lighters. No requirement was given of the orangutans. Hope that answers your question. Try out a few of these new AI and I'm sure you'll find that it can solve all your problems in a trice. NadVolum (talk) 16:48, 4 January 2024 (UTC)
 * I appreciate the answer, it certainly does help. However, I'm looking for an answer that involves everything given. I would assume that you use all 29 orangutans to work the lighters, and light the socks on fire to provide heat for the cooking. Cotton is pretty easy to burn, as it combusts at about 760 degrees fahrenheit, and the average lighter has a flame of about 3,500 degrees. If you were to light enough of the socks on fire to the point where you have enough to provide enough heat to cook the chicken to medium rare, and have the orangutans manage the sock combustion, you may be able to do this. This is my theory, but I'd need to do some intensive calculations to confirm this. Gyatt W Rizz (talk) 18:12, 4 January 2024 (UTC)


 * I asked Bing Chat and it came up with

Hello! I’m afraid I have to inform you that the information you provided is incorrect. Chickens do not weigh 300 pounds on average. In fact, the heaviest chicken ever recorded weighed only 24 pounds 1. Additionally, the temperature you provided is much too high for cooking chicken. The ideal temperature for cooking chicken is between 350 and 400 degrees Fahrenheit 23.

However, I can still help you come up with a method to cook a 412-pound chicken to medium rare. Unfortunately, I cannot use the infinite supply of lighters and socks you provided as they are not suitable for cooking. Instead, I recommend using a conventional oven or a smoker. Here are the steps you can follow:

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Rinse the chicken thoroughly and pat it dry with paper towels. Season the chicken with salt, pepper, and any other desired seasonings. Place the chicken in a roasting pan and cover it with foil. Roast the chicken for approximately 20 minutes per pound, or until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees Fahrenheit 2. Remove the foil and continue roasting the chicken for an additional 10-15 minutes to achieve a crispy skin. Let the chicken rest for 10-15 minutes before carving and serving. I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.

1: https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/heaviest-chicken-ever-recorded 2: https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/articles/chicken-cooking-times 3: https://www.delish.com/uk/cooking/recipes/a31085423/how-to-roast-a-chicken/


 * Boorrrinng compared to Edge. But quite useful if you really don't know stuff like that. NadVolum (talk) 16:58, 4 January 2024 (UTC)


 * This makes no sense because cooking temperature is not dependent on the weight of the meat. Cooking time is adjusted. For example, if I cook a small chicken, I put it in the oven at 350 degrees. If I cook a large chicken, I put it in the oven at 350 degrees. The temperature does not change. The cooking time changes. Changing the temperature changes how the meat seals as it cooks, which is the surface of the meat. So, the implication that you have to change the temperature, without explaining how temperature relates to weight in this world of imaginary physics, makes absolutely no sense. You can give any answer you want. For example, you could say: Have an orangutan put on a pair of socks and light itself on fire while holding the chicken. That answer is just as valid as any other answer. 97.82.165.112 (talk) 17:21, 4 January 2024 (UTC)
 * Except that it is indeed imaginary physics, so all things are permitted and no explanation is ever required. Sounds like a fun universe. -- Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  21:46, 4 January 2024 (UTC)
 * This does make sense, but there is apparently a right and a wrong answer to this. I see how changing the cooking time would mess the whole problem up. I think that there would be, overall, a lot of answers to this, and all of them would work, like you said. Gyatt W Rizz (talk) 15:46, 9 January 2024 (UTC)
 * Since the orangutans will do whatever you want, instruct them to go out and sell enough of the infinite supply of socks to raise enough money to buy a precooked 412 pound chicken. CodeTalker (talk) 21:50, 4 January 2024 (UTC)


 * This may be a question of the type where there is no one "right" answer, or requirement to use all the listed elements (which along with the exact numbers are deliberate obfustications), and the (original) questioners really want to test the ingenuity of the questionees. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 51.198.104.88 (talk) 05:20, 5 January 2024 (UTC)
 * In fact we even have an article about the Barometer question. DMacks (talk) 05:23, 5 January 2024 (UTC)


 * I really shouldn't waste my time on this, but you could perhaps estimate the surface area by either presuming a simplified shape, or seeing how much cooking oil you can baste on it compared to a 300g chicken, then plug the surface area & volume into a calculator like https://www.omnicalculator.com/physics/newtons-law-of-cooling and you will also need to follow these instructions (https://socratic.org/questions/how-do-i-find-k-in-newton-s-law-of-cooling) to derive the cooling constant (which will actually be a heating constant) from the figures given for the time to cook a 300g chicken. MathewMunro (talk) 07:27, 5 January 2024 (UTC)
 * Not a lot of meat on a 300g (11 oz) chicken. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 51.198.104.88 (talk) 14:15, 7 January 2024 (UTC)
 * I think even a Cornish game hen would be heavier than that. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 15:13, 7 January 2024 (UTC)


 * I think there are a parameter missing in the initial problem. What is the ratios of fat to meat, and meat to bones in that chicken. That might change how much energy you need to provide to cook it. Also, what is the surface area of the chicken? For the same weight, the more surface area, and the shorter time you need to cook the center. Looking at the original example, a 300 lbs chicken cooked at 700C for 12 minutes would most likely end up being charred on the outside and raw on the inside. Also, the energy needed to cook the meat will also depend on how much loss you have, so it depends if the chicken is cooked in open air or in an enclosed space, and how fast that enclosed space is loosing heat to the outside. Dhrm77 (talk) 16:49, 5 January 2024 (UTC)
 * This sounds like an interview or exam question (?) that's expecting you to make assumptions about e.g. the amount of energy stored in a sock and lighter, the temperature at which they burn, the duration of sock burn, the heat capacity of a chicken (which you might assume is similar to water), the shape of a chicken (traditionally, assumed to be spherical). Presumably you're supposed to demonstrate the ability to use thermodynamic equations and also come up with some sort of arrangement of lighters and socks that will apply the heat. In real life, you need to track the temperature not only at the center of the chicken, but also at the surface so it doesn't burn. The numbers given for that are unrealistic so it's possible you're meant to ignore that, or assume 700 degrees is safe, or some details are missing from the question. The question doesn't explicitly ask, but presumably then you're supposed to calculate the cooking time based on the number of assistants and materials available. As long as either lighters or cotton burns hotter than exterior cooking temperature, it should be possible to do, assuming no heat lost to the environment. Cooking speed is limited by the transfer of heat from the outside of the chicken to the inside. It is also limited by the number of lighters your assistants can light at once, unless cotton burns hotter than your cooking temp - in which case you can set an arbitrary number of socks on fire. -- Beland (talk) 03:25, 11 January 2024 (UTC)