Chemistry of Food and Cooking: Meringues
Reflection:
Quantitative Vs. Qualitative Quality of Food:
-How can we measure the qualities and desirability of a finished recipe both quantitatively and qualitatively in order to determine the success of our recipe experimentation?
Measuring the quality of a food product can be done both quantitatively and qualitatively, with numbers or without. To measure the quality of a food quantitatively, with numbers, you might measure how much of a food you can make, how dense it is, how firm it is, or its temperature, depending on what kind of food it is. This will give you results as to if the food is technically correct, but food is a hard thing to measure, and it’s generally very difficult to measure using numbers.
To measure the quality of a food qualitatively, without numbers, you might check if the color is correct, if it holds its shape, if the texture is what it’s supposed to be, or simply what it tastes like, depending on the food. The properties of food are much more easily tested with the senses, rather than scales or rulers or anything like that. It’s also hard to define what food is correct, because some standards just hold it up to tasting good, even if it wasn’t perfectly the way it was intended. If a food tastes good, which is an opinion, then to that person it is quality, desirable, and correct.
Cooking and Chemistry:
-In what way(s) is cooking like doing science and in what way(s) are they different? How are a cook and a food scientist similar or different?
Cooking and chemistry are linked in that they both require specific formulas, and have ingredients and products, with procedures to turn the components into the product. Both science and cooking frequently use fire and heat to create reactions, creating a product. They both require certain amounts of things, and require measurements. If a measurement is wrong, then the product will most likely turn out terrible and not what was intended. Similarly, once the reaction has taken place, it in all likeliness will not be able to be reversed.
While there is a correct way to do science and chemistry, and the measurements must be exact and procedures are supposed to be followed to the letter, cooking is a lot more free. There isn’t always a correct way to make something, and when cooking if the person adds extra steps or doesn’t measure precisely, in all likelihood the product will still be edible if at the hands of someone who knows how to cook. Recipes can be improved upon on a whim, whereas if something goes off script in a chemistry experiment, there could be a disaster.
Quantitative Vs. Qualitative Quality of Food:
-How can we measure the qualities and desirability of a finished recipe both quantitatively and qualitatively in order to determine the success of our recipe experimentation?
Measuring the quality of a food product can be done both quantitatively and qualitatively, with numbers or without. To measure the quality of a food quantitatively, with numbers, you might measure how much of a food you can make, how dense it is, how firm it is, or its temperature, depending on what kind of food it is. This will give you results as to if the food is technically correct, but food is a hard thing to measure, and it’s generally very difficult to measure using numbers.
To measure the quality of a food qualitatively, without numbers, you might check if the color is correct, if it holds its shape, if the texture is what it’s supposed to be, or simply what it tastes like, depending on the food. The properties of food are much more easily tested with the senses, rather than scales or rulers or anything like that. It’s also hard to define what food is correct, because some standards just hold it up to tasting good, even if it wasn’t perfectly the way it was intended. If a food tastes good, which is an opinion, then to that person it is quality, desirable, and correct.
Cooking and Chemistry:
-In what way(s) is cooking like doing science and in what way(s) are they different? How are a cook and a food scientist similar or different?
Cooking and chemistry are linked in that they both require specific formulas, and have ingredients and products, with procedures to turn the components into the product. Both science and cooking frequently use fire and heat to create reactions, creating a product. They both require certain amounts of things, and require measurements. If a measurement is wrong, then the product will most likely turn out terrible and not what was intended. Similarly, once the reaction has taken place, it in all likeliness will not be able to be reversed.
While there is a correct way to do science and chemistry, and the measurements must be exact and procedures are supposed to be followed to the letter, cooking is a lot more free. There isn’t always a correct way to make something, and when cooking if the person adds extra steps or doesn’t measure precisely, in all likelihood the product will still be edible if at the hands of someone who knows how to cook. Recipes can be improved upon on a whim, whereas if something goes off script in a chemistry experiment, there could be a disaster.
Energy and the Environment Project
Critical Consumer of Science
1) Rank the sources you cited on your infographic from “Most Reliable and Least Biased” to “Least Reliable and Most Biased”. Provide an explanation for your ranking scheme.
-Most Reliable: Quantifying Carbon Footprint Reduction Opportunities for U.S. Households and Communities a primary source, a study on the subject that has the scientific facts of climate change and ways to combat it, along with how effective each method is
-Pretty Reliable: Energy efficiency in transportation a wikipedia article that’s been crowdsourced and is reliable to a certain point, most likely little to no bias
-Iffy Reliability: Can planting trees offset your carbon footprint? An article in a scientific magazine, grist.org, written in 2007 by people who tried out the idea and found it themselves that it didn’t work very well
-Possibly Reliability issues: HOW PLANTING TREES CAN HELP REDUCE YOUR CARBON FOOTPRINT from a website advocating for planting trees, so probably biased, written in 2014 but contradicts other sources
2) Classify all of the sources cited on your infographic as primary, secondary or tertiary. Explain the rationale for your classification for each source.
-Primary source: Quantifying Carbon Footprint Reduction Opportunities for U.S. Households and Communities
-Secondary sources: Can planting trees offset your carbon footprint? And HOW PLANTING TREES CAN HELP REDUCE YOUR CARBON FOOTPRINT
-Tertiary source: Energy efficiency in transportation
3) Read over the Abstract from one of the primary sources you used. If you did not consult a primary source for your infographic, find one that is related to your topic and use it for this question.
a. Who are the authors of this paper, what journal is it published in and when was it published?
-Conducted by Christopher M. Jones and Daniel M. Kammen, from ACS Publications in March 30, 2011
b. Summarize the key points from the abstract.
-Doing more to protect the environment is financially positive as well as important if you care at all about the environment. The study focuses on typical households in the U.S., factoring in differences like household size, city, and income. It has been found that these three factors cause the amount of carbon emissions to vary considerably, however it is still an important and worthwhile endeavor to cut down on a carbon footprint. A model has been made to calculate what individual households can do for themselves.
c. Based on this abstract, what do you think the purpose of an abstract is and what information do you expect to find in the abstract of a scientific journal article?
-An abstract is basically a summary of the study, because many scientific studies can be dense and hard to read, so the abstract provides a simple way to get the information that you might need. And the website with the research I was using only had the abstract available, the rest requiring a subscription to view.
1) Rank the sources you cited on your infographic from “Most Reliable and Least Biased” to “Least Reliable and Most Biased”. Provide an explanation for your ranking scheme.
-Most Reliable: Quantifying Carbon Footprint Reduction Opportunities for U.S. Households and Communities a primary source, a study on the subject that has the scientific facts of climate change and ways to combat it, along with how effective each method is
-Pretty Reliable: Energy efficiency in transportation a wikipedia article that’s been crowdsourced and is reliable to a certain point, most likely little to no bias
-Iffy Reliability: Can planting trees offset your carbon footprint? An article in a scientific magazine, grist.org, written in 2007 by people who tried out the idea and found it themselves that it didn’t work very well
-Possibly Reliability issues: HOW PLANTING TREES CAN HELP REDUCE YOUR CARBON FOOTPRINT from a website advocating for planting trees, so probably biased, written in 2014 but contradicts other sources
2) Classify all of the sources cited on your infographic as primary, secondary or tertiary. Explain the rationale for your classification for each source.
-Primary source: Quantifying Carbon Footprint Reduction Opportunities for U.S. Households and Communities
-Secondary sources: Can planting trees offset your carbon footprint? And HOW PLANTING TREES CAN HELP REDUCE YOUR CARBON FOOTPRINT
-Tertiary source: Energy efficiency in transportation
3) Read over the Abstract from one of the primary sources you used. If you did not consult a primary source for your infographic, find one that is related to your topic and use it for this question.
a. Who are the authors of this paper, what journal is it published in and when was it published?
-Conducted by Christopher M. Jones and Daniel M. Kammen, from ACS Publications in March 30, 2011
b. Summarize the key points from the abstract.
-Doing more to protect the environment is financially positive as well as important if you care at all about the environment. The study focuses on typical households in the U.S., factoring in differences like household size, city, and income. It has been found that these three factors cause the amount of carbon emissions to vary considerably, however it is still an important and worthwhile endeavor to cut down on a carbon footprint. A model has been made to calculate what individual households can do for themselves.
c. Based on this abstract, what do you think the purpose of an abstract is and what information do you expect to find in the abstract of a scientific journal article?
-An abstract is basically a summary of the study, because many scientific studies can be dense and hard to read, so the abstract provides a simple way to get the information that you might need. And the website with the research I was using only had the abstract available, the rest requiring a subscription to view.