How hard do you have to hit a chicken to cook it? (2020) • Hacker News Board

Re: How hard do you have to hit a chicken to cook it? (2020)

#51

Post by ptero » Sat, Oct 11, 2025, 11:56 AM UTC

fifticon wrote: post #16

hakken306 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your intuition is right in this case. A 2kW oven is more than enough to heat small chicken up to temperature. The author lazily took the 165F temperature and put it into a blackbody calculator without converting the units. Anything but the metric system... Assuming the chicken has a surface area A=1m^2 (corresponding to a perfectly spherical chicken of radius=25cm/diameter=50cm, a little bigger than usual) and is a p…

points for'a perfectly spherical chicken'.

And later put it in an interstellar space, no less!

Re: How hard do you have to hit a chicken to cook it? (2020)

#52

Post by mgilroy » Sat, Oct 11, 2025, 11:58 AM UTC

walthamstow wrote: post #30

bobson381 wrote: post #26

Used to joke in the kitchen that I worked in that if we were pressed for time, instead of baking something for an hour at 300°, we can just bake it for 6 minutes at 3,000°. It's such a fun concept and always makes me giggle

This is used in software engineering too, people will say things like "you can't make a baby in a month with 9 women"

Are we making a joke about software developers chance of getting any of the nine to sleep with them?

You can't give birth to a baby in one month using 9 women.

Re: How hard do you have to hit a chicken to cook it? (2020)

#53

Post by p0w3n3d » Sat, Oct 11, 2025, 12:15 PM UTC

I raise the bar higher - how hard and how long do you need to hit the chicken to make it sous vide

Re: How hard do you have to hit a chicken to cook it? (2020)

#54

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Oct 11, 2025, 12:15 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: How hard do you have to hit a chicken to cook it? (2020)

#55

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Oct 11, 2025, 12:15 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: How hard do you have to hit a chicken to cook it? (2020)

#56

Post by p0w3n3d » Sat, Oct 11, 2025, 12:17 PM UTC

userbinator wrote: post #8

Assuming an infinitely malleable chicken... This reminds me of the old blacksmithing trick: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4I68Cik7ywg

one must be strong to hit 2kg hammer this fast

Re: How hard do you have to hit a chicken to cook it? (2020)

#57

Post by rkomorn » Sat, Oct 11, 2025, 12:19 PM UTC

p0w3n3d wrote: post #53

I raise the bar higher - how hard and how long do you need to hit the chicken to make it sous vide

Sometimes I wish the anglophone cooking world hadn't forgotten that "sous-vide" actually refers to the vacuum sealing.

Re: How hard do you have to hit a chicken to cook it? (2020)

#58

Post by xattt » Sat, Oct 11, 2025, 12:23 PM UTC

Ekaros wrote: post #7

Chicken sized 74C object radiates at 2kW? Probably cools rather fast, but still feels like high number... Energy in general really feels weird, when you look at the numbers. Like potential energy or kinetic on relatively low speeds... And then compared to chemical energy... Edit: Also how do you get it there? Wouldn't you need to hit it with higher frequency to start with to get to temp?

The cooking-by-force does seem unintuitive, but kitchen gadgets like cooking blenders for soups do exactly this by pushing blades through high-viscosity mixtures in order to achieve the desired effect.

Re: How hard do you have to hit a chicken to cook it? (2020)

#59

Post by sph » Sat, Oct 11, 2025, 12:33 PM UTC

I thought this was xkcd's What If? series from the title.

By the way, it's got a Youtube channel now and it's as good as ever: https://www.youtube.com/@xkcd_whatif

Re: How hard do you have to hit a chicken to cook it? (2020)

#60

Post by kylecazar » Sat, Oct 11, 2025, 12:35 PM UTC

"if you slap a chicken at 3726 mph, it will be cooked."

Certainly holds true for the Gen Z sense of the word.