It had one section dealing with instructions for cooking a turkey. It turns out that instructions are different in different parts of the world. We might be familiar with instructions such as this.
- Turkey weights of 8 to 11 pounds, roast for 2.5 to 3 hours.
- Turkey weights of 12 to 14 pounds, roast for 3 to 3.5 hours.
- Turkey weights of 15 to 20 pounds, roast for 3.5 to 4.5 hours.
These instructions are helpful, but there are some issues. A 14 pound turkey would get cooked for 3.5 hours, but so does a 15 pound turkey. So these instructions get you in the ballpark, but there is another way of expression these instructions.
The British Turkey Information Service (Apparently a real thing). The directions are now in minutes and kilograms:
- Less than 4 kg in weight? Cook for 20 minutes per kilograms then add another 70 minutes at the end.
- More than 4 kg in weight? Cook for 20 minutes per kilograms then add another 90 minutes at the end.
The British system could be written like this:
- y = 20x+70, if x < 4
- y = 20x+90, if x > 4
Mathematically speaking, we have gone from a piecewise defined function that resembles a step function to a piecewise function with y = mx+b parts.
The British systems seems like it would give better cooking estimates. There are, however problems at x = 4. The function isn't even defined there. And if it was, should the cooking time be 150 minutes or 170, or split the difference and go for 160?
I would think some fine tuning could easily fix the problem. The BTIS needs to get on this. As it stands, looking at the functions and the graphs would make for interesting student activities.
