Wednesday, November 7, 2007 - 2:10 PM
414e

Hot Potato: Edible Thermodynamics And Heat Transfer

Margot A.-S. Vigeant, Chemical Engineering, Bucknell University, Dana Engineering Building, Lewisburg, PA 17837

While most of our students easily see the connection between their chemical engineering education and their professional lives, many of them find it harder to connect their work to familiar experiences. The traditional solution to this problem is to give students more chemical experience through laboratories, but learning can also be aided by tying class material to everyday experiences. In this talk, I will share some of my ideas and experiences explaining thermodynamics and heat transfer ideas in terms of food, including the best way to cool bottles, the thermal efficiency of popcorn, and getting burnt (or not) by an oven. These ideas can work as demos or thought experiments, and most produce edible results.