Turkeys Don�t Burn Down Houses, People Do

Kitchen Combat is now "Thanksgiving Safety Central." We're dedicating this November to twice-weekly posts about how to avoid horrible Thanksgiving fried turkey disasters. Don't worry, we haven't become a namby pamby safety site, we're also including some extreme examples of what NOT to do.

Frying turkeys is one way to get some delicious dark meat, but it comes with some dangers. Improperly done, the turkey won't be the only thing that's fried. To get an idea of how badly this can go wrong, I present to you a comedy morning show's very serious demonstration:

Remember when you complained when you had to learn geometry in high school? You can finally put Archimedes' Principle to use. You know, W=pVg. What, you don't know what that is? Now I bet you're wishing you weren't daydreaming about prom.

Here's the gist; when you put some stuff in some other stuff, you'd better make sure that there's enough room for both stuff in your container that holds the stuff. Otherwisegrease fire.

If that wasn't detailed enough for you, you can always make an accurate mathematical model of your turkey and the pot you are sticking it in with thishandy dandy calculator. Just remember to be accurate in the measurements of your turkey, the height of the body, density of the body, density of the liquid, and measuring range. You're hard work will be rewarded with knowing the draught, replaced volume, buoyant force, weight of body, and measured force.

In short: small turkey, little oil, big pot.

Come back this Tuesday for a little more math: Oil + Water = Disaster

Published by:
Ramona Weisent

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