The Science of Baking Trivia Quiz

Answer: Heat

Baking involves, without going into too much detail, the preparation of food with the use of surrounding heat. Using this process, external heat, usually via element or fire if you're using a conventional oven, cooks food from the outside and transfers that heat inwards.

This is why if you're using a microwave (or a general oven), checking the inside of whatever you are cooking is generally an indicator of your culinary skill; there are ways to cook foods where you overcook the outside and leave the inside raw, making this option perhaps a bit more scientific than a lot of other cooking methods.

Heat is a catalyst for chemical change and has a strong effect on several food types we would normally look to when considering baking as an option.

Answer: Act as leavening agents

Baking soda, or sodium bicarbonate, is a substance which must be combined with other reactive ingredients (acids, typically) to leaven breads or dough. Baking powder contains sodium bicarbonate, but it's also packed in with an acid already (haha) baked in.

The bicarbonate is broken down with the help of heat to create carbon dioxide which again, in turn, helps the baking grow. With the latter, if you're already baking with ingredients that have an acidic tendency (citrus or yogurt, for instance) then you would try to avoid overuse, otherwise your baked goods would taste quite awful.

Answer: Kiln

A kiln is an insulated chamber which is typically used to bake an object with the intent to harden it to a solid form, so when someone refers to 'baking clay', they're not looking to make something to eat, but instead to create pottery or masonry. Crafting ceramics is also done with this method, forming the item desired and cooking it at a high enough heat to remove moisture and keep the structure. Controlling the temperature in a kiln also provides opportunities for craftspeople to glaze pieces, sealing in porous contents to protect or beautify an item.

Answer: Make-up

'Baking your face' or 'baking your makeup', is a bit of an informal term but it applies to application of make-up, specifically powder. This process allows for smoother finish from make-up since it means that you let cosmetics like concealer and foundation warm with your body heat.

After laying these on thick, you pack powder over the area and let it rest for up to ten minutes before brushing that layer away. What should result is a finished product that looks more professional. The technique is one that's been around for a while, but the name of the process (ie. 'baking') is one that's grown in popularity over the years, especially with social-media-ready celebrities and the mainstream focus on drag culture.

Answer: Alkali flats

If a region is sun-baked then it's greatly affected by the sun's heat to the point where the exposure leads it to become arid, dry, and cracked. So while a person can be sun-baked from laying out in the sun and burning, the ground can do the same. Although all of these areas probably get a fair amount of sun, an alkali flat is a dry region, typically a lake bed, where the sun has evaporated all moisture from the ground. Because of this lack of moisture, the region lacks the minerals and water needed to sustain plant life, meaning you're going to have one barren landscape.

Answer: Ultraviolet radiation

If your idea of beauty and self-care is a tan, then you've probably entertained the idea of visiting a tanning salon (especially if you have no interest in old-fashioned suntanning). If you happen to lie down in a tanning bed then you can effectively lie in for a bake and use UV light to darken skin tone almost as though you spent a good amount of time in the sun.

Instead, a tanning bed uses tanning bulbs designed to redden the skin at a dose prescribed by health officials. A single bed can contain more than a hundred bulbs. Often, these can be found as part of a larger spa and wellness package.

Answer: THC

Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, better known as THC, is the culprit in this case, so when someone refers to 'getting baked' (or 'stoned', or 'buzzed'), they're likely talking about smoking pot. THC notably triggers the brain's reward center to give a feeling of satisfaction, so when a user feels the heaviness that comes with imbibing on this substance, it's that causing reactions with cannaboid receptors. CBD Oil is similar but different.

While marijuana or cannabis contains this oil, it has a different psychoactive effect on the brain for instance by tempering anxiety. CBD actually inhibits the same receptors that THC tries to take advantage of.

Answer: Texture mapping

Baking a texture map might not be the most complex procedure for anyone delving into graphic art and design but it can be necessary, especially for detail, in complex rendering. The process involves two mesh layers-- one more complex and the other graphed with geometrical forms based on the design being implemented-- which are subsequently 'baked' together into a texture file via software. If you, like me, are not mathematically-minded, then there's no worry because a computer will handle the measurements and calculations for you once the basics are input.

The goal, with this, is to minimize render time by simplifying and preparing components.

Answer: DNA sequencing

Named after a molecular scientist by the name of Edwin Southern, this 'blot' method is a process in which a biologist (forensic or otherwise) places fragments of DNA into a gel and, potentially, a solution used to denature the contents before sealing the contents in a membrane and applying pressure to the whole thing.

When baked (literally, in an oven or otherwise) under controlled conditions, the DNA will fuse to the membrane and can be exposed to different factors to locate and isolate specific strands.

This is important, specifically, because it has major applications in gene mapping and cloning of DNA strands. This being said, the method was created in the 1970s and technological advances have improved upon the process greatly, reducing the need for this procedure.

Answer: Electronics

The Baker Clamp is used in circuitry to dissipate power at a higher rate to avoid saturation. To put this in layman's terms, since I am far from an electrical engineer, the idea of saturation refers to the maximum power that a circuit can operate with before it overloads.

A Baker Clamp gradually decreases the gain before it reaches this breaking point, in turn preventing a catastrophic failure in a circuit through regulation. While there are other clamps out there, Baker's was patented in the mid-1950s.