Naked Science Forum
General Science => General Science => Topic started by: DoctorBeaver on 15/05/2007 10:28:46
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I like toast. I eat it quite often & I've noticed something. If I toast a crust it gets hotter & stays hotter longer than an ordinary slice of bread does. Why is that?
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Does this happen with all types of Bread! Hold on tight and you may get your answer, Doc [;D]
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Not sure about all types. I haven't tried toasting laver bread or Bavarian black bread [:D]
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I would have thought that a lot of the effect will be because a crust is quite a lot heavier than a normal piece of bread so for the same or probably less surface area (because it only has one face that is bubbley) you have more energy stored - hence it takes longer to cool down. Also at the same temperature it has more energy to give your lips, so it is more likely to heat them up to the point they hurt.
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Thanks Dave. As erudite as ever! [:)]
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Thanks Dave. As erudite as ever! [:)]
yes. He's a good lad [:)]
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Thanks Dave. As erudite as ever! [:)]
He knows his onions.
Hmmm... that brings another question to mind - where does that expression originate?
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The crucial fact is that the expression isn’t British but American, first recorded in the magazine Harper’s Bazaar in March 1922. It was one of a set of such phrases, all with the sense of knowing one’s stuff, or being highly knowledgeable in a particular field, that circulated in the 1920s. Others were to know one’s oats, to know one’s oil, to know one’s apples, to know one’s eggs, and even to know one’s sweet potatoes (which appeared in a cartoon by T A Dorgan in 1928). You may notice certain similarities between the substances mentioned, most being foods and most having names that start with a vowel.
They contain much of the verbal inventiveness and mildly juvenile wordplay that characterises another American linguistic fad of the flapper period, that of describing something excellent of its kind in terms of an area of an animal’s anatomy (elephant’s instep, gnat’s elbows and about a hundred others — see my piece on bee’s knees for more).
As with bee’s knees, one of these multifarious forms eventually triumphed and became a catchphrase that has survived to the present day. Sadly it has provided an opportunity for a couple of people to provide what seems like an erudite explanation but which is really no more than a popular etymology.
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-kno1.htm
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Smart ass! [:(!]
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Smart ass! [:(!]
i knew that site would come in handy one day! [^]
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And a damned good site it is too!