The potato paradox
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You have 100 lb of "mathematical" potatoes, which are 99 percent water by weight. You let them dehydrate until they're 98 percent water. How much do they weigh now? No googling, ok.
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
I'll chime in before I read the subsequent posts: 98.9... lbs. [edit]OH - I'm so ashamed![/edit]
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
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Nope: you cut 'em, you simmer them until soft, then cool and into the fridge for 4 or 5 hours. When they come out, they are already smaller as the fridge has reduced the water content. Low temperature fry - 130C - cool, and back in the fridge for another 4 to 5 hours. When they come out, they are significantly smaller than they started! Then the high temp fry - 190C - drain and serve. Damn good chips - but quite a palaver (especially making enough room in the damn fridge).
Sent from my Amstrad PC 1640 Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay... AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
What oil do you use?
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
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Forgive me for being thick but I cannot get my head round that. In 100lb there is 1lb of starch and 99 lbs of water (yes?). So if you lose 1% of the water, isn't that just 1lb less than before?
Richard MacCutchan wrote:
So if you lose 1% of the water,
That's the point that sets you in the wrong direction. You didn't lose 1% of the water, but rather, changed the calculated (relative) percent of water to the whole, not to itself. (yes - you had other explanations, but this is just a thought-process notice)
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
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Jörgen Andersson wrote:
No googling, ok.
Given that Google's conversion tool has been claiming that an imperial pint is exactly 500ml for several months at least, I'm not sure it would help anyway. :doh: 1 imperial pint in ml - Google Search[^] (See the description of the first result under the tool if you're not sure what the problem is.)
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined." - Homer
Luckily I didn't write anything about pints in the post.
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
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I'll chime in before I read the subsequent posts: 98.9... lbs. [edit]OH - I'm so ashamed![/edit]
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
You're not the only one, but that's why I posted it to begin with. :-\
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
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Nope: you cut 'em, you simmer them until soft, then cool and into the fridge for 4 or 5 hours. When they come out, they are already smaller as the fridge has reduced the water content. Low temperature fry - 130C - cool, and back in the fridge for another 4 to 5 hours. When they come out, they are significantly smaller than they started! Then the high temp fry - 190C - drain and serve. Damn good chips - but quite a palaver (especially making enough room in the damn fridge).
Sent from my Amstrad PC 1640 Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay... AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
Now you're doing this by eyeball (volume) rather than weight (at least as described). Let's consider another mechanism to the volume loss: internal hot air pockets which contract dramatically when cooled (liquids, not so much). It might be even more interesting if you froze them between rounds - water can expand and pool during the freezing, changing the qualities dramatically, to wit: If one takes some firm ToFu and whilst still packaged in water, freezes it for a few days, it will be observed that it turns from white-to-yellow. Upon defrosting, one will find that it has transformed into a tough yet spongy mass. You can literally ring it out and sop up all sorts of flavors - then cook it and properly chew your food (I digress). The point being that the water is forced out of the ToFu structure, aggregates in small pockets, and freezes. This modifies the structure severely both where the water collected and from where it was collected. So - could you, as an aficionado of the potato process, perceive a parallel path (to a lesser degree) in you potato concoction? None of this is judgmental on the utility/futility of the process or flavor.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
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What oil do you use?
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
Sunflower, in my (Industrial) deep fat fryer - it holds 8l of oil, so it doesn't vary much in temp when food is added, plus it's big enough to double up as the "pot" for my Sous Vide circulator when it's not frying. (Plus it has a built in tab to drain it when it's cooled to stop the oil going nasty between uses.)
Sent from my Amstrad PC 1640 Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay... AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Now you're doing this by eyeball (volume) rather than weight (at least as described). Let's consider another mechanism to the volume loss: internal hot air pockets which contract dramatically when cooled (liquids, not so much). It might be even more interesting if you froze them between rounds - water can expand and pool during the freezing, changing the qualities dramatically, to wit: If one takes some firm ToFu and whilst still packaged in water, freezes it for a few days, it will be observed that it turns from white-to-yellow. Upon defrosting, one will find that it has transformed into a tough yet spongy mass. You can literally ring it out and sop up all sorts of flavors - then cook it and properly chew your food (I digress). The point being that the water is forced out of the ToFu structure, aggregates in small pockets, and freezes. This modifies the structure severely both where the water collected and from where it was collected. So - could you, as an aficionado of the potato process, perceive a parallel path (to a lesser degree) in you potato concoction? None of this is judgmental on the utility/futility of the process or flavor.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
W∴ Balboos wrote:
If one takes some firm ToFu and whilst still packaged in water, freezes it for a few days, it will be observed that it turns from white-to-yellow. Upon defrosting, one will find that it has transformed into a tough yet spongy mass. You can literally ring it out and sop up all sorts of flavors - then cook it and properly chew your food (I digress). The point being that the water is forced out of the ToFu structure, aggregates in small pockets, and freezes. This modifies the structure severely both where the water collected and from where it was collected. throws it in the bin in favour of BACON
FTFY!
Sent from my Amstrad PC 1640 Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay... AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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W∴ Balboos wrote:
If one takes some firm ToFu and whilst still packaged in water, freezes it for a few days, it will be observed that it turns from white-to-yellow. Upon defrosting, one will find that it has transformed into a tough yet spongy mass. You can literally ring it out and sop up all sorts of flavors - then cook it and properly chew your food (I digress). The point being that the water is forced out of the ToFu structure, aggregates in small pockets, and freezes. This modifies the structure severely both where the water collected and from where it was collected. throws it in the bin in favour of BACON
FTFY!
Sent from my Amstrad PC 1640 Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay... AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
I'll enjoy some crispy ToFu fries in memory of your clogged arteries and severely limited sense of taste. A consequence of living on those hog-infested islands, I suppose.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
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Richard MacCutchan wrote:
So if you lose 1% of the water,
That's the point that sets you in the wrong direction. You didn't lose 1% of the water, but rather, changed the calculated (relative) percent of water to the whole, not to itself. (yes - you had other explanations, but this is just a thought-process notice)
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
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Well idf they are 99% water, the water weighs 1v lb and the rest weighs 99lb. so if you extract 2% of the watere, the remaining weight would be 99 +0. 98= 99.98 lb.
CQ de W5ALT
Walt Fair, Jr., P. E. Comport Computing Specializing in Technical Engineering Software
read it again. You don't extract 2% of water. You dry them until water makes a 98% of the weight. It is not the same.
M.D.V. ;) If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about? Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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Luckily I didn't write anything about pints in the post.
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
I assumed you'd sunk a few before coming up with the question. :D
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined." - Homer
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You have 100 lb of "mathematical" potatoes, which are 99 percent water by weight. You let them dehydrate until they're 98 percent water. How much do they weigh now? No googling, ok.
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
Sorry, I have the (usually good) habit of at least quickly glancing through all the replies before I add a comment. So I saw the answer before starting to consider the problem myself. But the problem is a good one! (Although not a true paradox.) Semi off track (but only semi!): It reminds me of a Norwegian sausage maker boasting his sausages having a 133% meat content. Advertising authorities protested: No product, not even a boneless steak, can contain more than 100% meat. This slaughter insisted that he used 1,33 kg meat to make 1 kg of these cured (smoked and dried) sausages. This went to court, where it was pointed out: When the meat is weighed, it contains a lot of water that weighs as meat. In the production process, when the sausages are dried, some of this water is removed. If that water was labeled as meat when you weighed the ingredients before you started, it is actually part of the meat that is removed during the drying. You can't claim that all of the meat is a part of the product when you have removed some of it. So the slaughter lost the case, and had to change the wording from "contains 133% meat" to "For each kg of sausage, 1,33 kg of meat is used". Which isn't too bad - the sausages are tasty! :-)
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You have 100 lb of "mathematical" potatoes, which are 99 percent water by weight. You let them dehydrate until they're 98 percent water. How much do they weigh now? No googling, ok.
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
it's 50 lb
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Forgive me for being thick but I cannot get my head round that. In 100lb there is 1lb of starch and 99 lbs of water (yes?). So if you lose 1% of the water, isn't that just 1lb less than before?
Richard MacCutchan wrote:
So if you lose 1% of the water, isn't that just 1lb less than before?
lets work through this. if this were the case. 100lb total, 1lb startch, 99lb water water = 99/100 = 99% of total - 1lb water = 1lb startch, 98lb water, total 99lb water = 98/99 = 98.9898989... % it is not 98.0% yet.
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Richard MacCutchan wrote:
So if you lose 1% of the water, isn't that just 1lb less than before?
lets work through this. if this were the case. 100lb total, 1lb startch, 99lb water water = 99/100 = 99% of total - 1lb water = 1lb startch, 98lb water, total 99lb water = 98/99 = 98.9898989... % it is not 98.0% yet.
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I was quoting @Richard-MacCutchan and was trying to help explain (to myself aswell) that losing only 1lb water would NOT give 98.0% but only works out to 98.98...% and that the correct number is something else.
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I was quoting @Richard-MacCutchan and was trying to help explain (to myself aswell) that losing only 1lb water would NOT give 98.0% but only works out to 98.98...% and that the correct number is something else.
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You have 100 lb of "mathematical" potatoes, which are 99 percent water by weight. You let them dehydrate until they're 98 percent water. How much do they weigh now? No googling, ok.
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
-
You have 100 lb of "mathematical" potatoes, which are 99 percent water by weight. You let them dehydrate until they're 98 percent water. How much do they weigh now? No googling, ok.
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
WEIGHT_OF_POTATOES = 100 lbs
WEIGHT_OF_WATER / WEIGHT_OF_POTATOES = 0.99
WEIGHT_OF_WATER = WEIGHT_OF_POTATOES * 0.99WEIGHT_OF_WATER = 99 lbs;
(WEIGHT_OF_WATER - weight_to_evaporate) / (WEIGHT_OF_POTATOES - weight_to_evaporate) = 0.98
(99 - weight_to_evaporate) / (100 - weight_to_evaporate) = 0.98
weight_to_evaporate = 50 lbs;So the final answer is WEIGHT_OF_POTATOES - weight_to_evaporate = 100lbs - 50lbs = 50lbs
