Dimensional Analysis for Cooking a Turkey

This worksheet is used to investigate the accuracy of the traditional rule of thumb that turkey should be
cooked in a 350F oven for 20 min/lb.

Dimensional and Dimensionless Analysis

In the SI system, there are 7 fundamental dimensional units: mass, length, time, current, temperature,
amount of substance, and luminous intensity. For our example, we will only be concerned with
mass, length, and time, and these will represent our fundamental dimensional units.
kg d L1 :
m d L2 :
s d L3 :
The remainder of our descriptive quantities in our model have dimensions that are products of powers
of our fundamental dimensional units.
time

length

tds
ldm
L3
(1.1)
L2

density

oven
temperature

thermal
conductivity

d kg mK3
T d kg mK1 sK2 d m2 sK1
(1.2)
2
L1
L1
L2
(1.4)
(1.3)
(1.5)
2
L2 L3
L23
L3

(Here temperature is defined as energy per volume, and thermal conductivity is energy times the
length divided by the product area, the time, and the temperature)

Using T as the secondary quantity

Since there are three fundamental dimensional units, we will have three primary quantities which
can be chosen arbitrarily from our four variables. We will choose l, , and as our primary
variables, giving us three linearly independent vectors with respect our fundamental dimensional
units L1, L2, and L3 :

Page 1 of 9

0
ld

1
d

K3

0
:

K1

We will now create our primary quantity D, such that [D]=[t], where D = P1 1 ...Pmm, where Pi are
linearly independent primary quantities. To do this, we need to solve t = l
we will construct the augmented matrix:

. First,
(1.1.1)

convert l, rho, kappa, 0, 0, 1 , Matrix

0

0 0

1 K3

2 0

(1.1.2)

0 K1 1

Solving the above matrix yields:

ReducedRowEchelonForm (1.1.2)
1 0 0

0 1 0

(1.1.3)

0 0 1 K1
From this, we can solve for our variables , , and :
GenerateEquations (1.1.3), alpha, beta, gamma
= 2, = 0, = K1
Therefore, D =

(1.1.4)

l2
, which has the same dimensions of t. Next, we will calculate D1 based on our

secondary quantity T, such that [D]=[T]. To do this, we solve T = l

construct the augmented matrix:

. First, we

convert l, rho, kappa, 1,K1,K2 , Matrix

0

1 K3
0

2 K1

(1.1.5)

0 K1 K2

Solving the matrix yields:

ReducedRowEchelonForm (1.1.5)

Page 2 of 9

1 0 0 K2
0 1 0

0 0 1

(1.1.6)

From this, we can solve for our variables , , and :

GenerateEquations (1.1.6), alpha, beta, gamma
= K2, = 1, = 2

(1.1.7)

Therefore, D1 =

l2

, which has the same dimensions of T.

To create our dimensionless quantities and 1, we can simply divide our primary and secondary
quantities by our newly created quantities D and D1 . This give us:

dt

l2

1 = T

l2
2

Applying the Buckingham Pi Theorem, we obtain the dependency

2
2
l
l
t = D F 1 =
F T
, with an unknown function F. In order to gain further
2

information on F, we will need to invoke experimental data. Before doing that, we will simplify
our equation by making a few assumptions. Since we are testing the validity of the rule of thumb,
we will first assume that we'll keep the oven temperature constant at 350 F. Also, it would be
reasonable to assume that the thermal conductivity and density of turkeys does not vary much
from one bird to the next. The final assumption we'll make is that the mass of a turkey (M) is
3
proportional to the volume of the turkey. Since volume is in m and mass is in kg, we can make
1
3

2
3

2
3

the substitution l = M . Making the substitution will give us t = M F M . This relationship

is rather useless, since all it shows is that t is a function of M. Looking at the equation, we know
that F is dimensionless, and temperature, density and thermal conductivity are kept fixed. Only
the variable M remains, and we have to proceed by testing simple hypotheses for F.
The simplest hypotheses is that F is constant. If this is the case, than cooking time is proportional
2
3

to M as opposed to being a linear function as stated by the rule of thumb. However, F M

not known to be constant. If, for example F x = C$x2 where C is some constant, than the
resulting t dependence on M would in fact be linear.

2
3

is

Page 3 of 9

Using as the secondary quantity

Repeating a similar process as above, we will choose l, , and T as our primary variables:
0
ld

K3

We will now solve t = l

1
:

Td

K1

K2

T . First, we will construct the augmented matrix:

(1.2.1)

convert

l, , T, 0, 0, 1 , Matrix
0

1 0

1 K3 K1 0
0

(1.2.2)

0 K2 1

Solving the above matrix yields:

ReducedRowEchelonForm (1.2.2)
1 0 0

0 1 0

1
2

(1.2.3)

1
2

0 0 1 K

From this, we can solve for our variables , , and :

GenerateEquations (1.2.3), alpha, beta, gamma
= 1, =

Therefore, D = l

1
1
, =K
2
2

, which has the same dimensions of . Next, we will calculate D1 based on

T

our secondary quantity , such that [D]=[]. To do this, we solve = l

construct the augmented matrix:

convert

(1.2.4)

T . First, we

l, , T, 0, 2,K1 , Matrix

Page 4 of 9

1 K3 K1

(1.2.5)

0 K2 K1

Solving the matrix yields:

ReducedRowEchelonForm (1.2.5)
1 0 0

1
1
2

0 1 0 K
0 0 1

(1.2.6)

1
2

From this, we can solve for our variables , , and :

GenerateEquations (1.2.6), alpha, beta, gamma
1
1
= 1, = K , =
2
2
Therefore, D1 = l

(1.2.7)

T
, which has the same dimensions of .

To create our dimensionless quantities and 1, we can simply divide our primary and secondary
quantities by our newly created quantities D and D1 . This give us:
1
l

=t

1
l

1 =

Applying the Buckingham Pi Theorem, we obtain the dependency

t = D G 1 = l

G
T

. Making the same assumptions about temperature,

thermal conductivity and mass, we will get t = M

1
3

G M

1
3

Using mass instead of density and length

A third option is to use T, , and mass M. This will give us:
1
Td

K1

K2

We will now solve t = T

2
K1

1
:

Md

0 :
0

M . First, we will construct the augmented matrix:

Page 5 of 9

(1.3.1)
convert

T, , M, 0, 0, 1 , Matrix
1

0 1 0

K1

2 0 0

(1.3.2)

K2 K1 0 1
Solving the above matrix yields:
ReducedRowEchelonForm (1.3.2)
2
5

1 0 0 K

1
5

0 1 0 K
0 0 1

(1.3.3)

2
5

From this, we can solve for our variables , , and :

GenerateEquations (1.3.3), alpha, beta, gamma
2
1
2
=K , =K , =
5
5
5

Therefore, D =

M2
T2

(1.3.4)

1
5

. Since there is no secondary quantity, we can simply create our

dimensionless quantity as t =

M2
T2

1
5

H 0 . Making the same assumptions about

temperature, thermal conductivity and mass, we will get t = M

2
5

H 0 .

Page 6 of 9

Evaluating the Functions

We now have three functions to describe the cooking time of a turkey in addition to the rule of
thumb. In order to determine which option yields the best results, we will need to analyze some data.
The following chart has actual cooking times for various sizes of turkeys:
weight
(lbs)

10

12 15

20

25 30

time
(hrs)

2.5 3.4

3. 4.5
5

5.4 5.8 7

2
3

1
3

Because we do not have any information regarding the functions F M , G M

, and H 0 , we
will just test the models under the assumptions that these functions are constant. We will now plot
t
the dependence of p against the weight M where p=2/3, 2/5, 1/3, respectively, along with the
M
original rule of thumb (or p=1).
mass d 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, 25, 30 :
t d 2, 2.5, 3.4, 3.5, 4.5, 5.4, 5.8, 7 :
A d Vector
B d Vector
C d Vector
F d Vector

8
8
8
8

for i to 8 do;
A i dt
B i dt
C i dt
F i dt
end do:

i
i
i
i

:
:
:
:
/ mass
/ mass
/ mass
/ mass

LSA d LeastSquares
LSB d LeastSquares
LSC d LeastSquares
LSF d LeastSquares

i
i
i
i

^
^
^
^

2/3 ;
2/5 ;
1/3 ;
1 ;

Vector
Vector
Vector
Vector

mass
mass
mass
mass

, A, x
, B, x
, C, x
, F, x

:
:
:
:

display PointPlot A, B, C, F , color = red, green, gold, blue , xcoords = mass , plot LSA, LSB,
LSC, LSF , x = 0 ..30, y = 0 ..2.5, legend = "p=2/3", "p=2/5", "p=1/3", "p=1" , legendstyle
= location = right , labels = "M (lbs)", "t/M^p"

Page 7 of 9

2.5

1.5

p=2/3
p=2/5
p=1/3
p=1

t/M^p
1

0.5

0
0

10

20

30

M (lbs)
As we can see, all four can be represented by a linear function, but only p=2/3 is essentially constant.
Therefore the cooking time would be best represented by the function t = M
2
3

2
3

F M

2
3

Simplifying this will give us t = C$x , where C is some constant.

A New Rule
The constant C can easily be determined from the line of best fit LSA =
0.7185215541 K0.0002491161922 x. This gives us a constant of 0.7185 hrs/lbs ^(2/3), or roughly
45 min/lbs^(2/3). Therefore, our new and old rules of thumb are:
ROT d 20$x

newROT d 45$x

20 x

(3.1)

45 x2/3

(3.2)

2
3

Page 8 of 9

where x is the weight in pounds, and time is in minutes. Plotting these equations against the cooking
times provided give us:
display PointPlot t$60, xcoords = mass, color = black , plot ROT, newROT , x = 0 ..30, color
= blue, red , legend = "Old ROT", "New ROT" , legendstyle = location = right , labels
= "M (lbs)", "t (min)"

600

500

400

t (min) 300

Old ROT
New ROT

200

100

0
0

10

20

30

M (lbs)
From this plot, we can clearly see that our new function is much closer to the experimental cooking
times. Even when a fifteen minute error is allowed, the old rule is only accurate when the weight of
the turkey is between 9-14 pounds, whereas the new rule is accurate for the whole range of weights.

Page 9 of 9