The Average Rise of a Turkey's Cooking Temperature Explained

Cooking is more than just an art; it’s a delightful science, especially when it comes to understanding how heat affects food. Take a turkey, for instance—imagine you’ve got one cooking at a toasty 400° F for three long hours. But here's a question that might just get your brain sizzling: if this bird goes from 30° F to a mouthwatering 156° F, how do you figure out the average temperature rise per hour? Sounds complicated, right? Don’t worry; let’s break it down like a recipe, step by step.

First off, let’s figure out the temperature increase. Picture this: your turkey starts at a chill-inducing 30° F—perfectly frigid. When its time in the oven is done, it ends up at a glorious 156° F. To find out how much that turkey heated up, you subtract the starting temperature from the final one. Here’s the math for clarity:

156° F (final temperature) - 30° F (initial temperature) = 126° F.

So, what do we do with that 126° F? Well, you want to find out how much it rose on average per hour, since we know it cooked for a solid three hours. This is where division enters the cooking equation. You take the total temperature increase of 126° F and divide it by the cooking time—three hours.

Let’s do the math:

126° F ÷ 3 hours = 42° F per hour.

And voila! You just discovered that, on average, that turkey's temperature rose by 42° F each hour while cooking. Neat, right?

This little numerical journey doesn’t just satisfy curiosity; it’s perfect practice for something like the Wonderlic Cognitive Ability Test. Why? Because it gets you thinking critically and applying math in real-world scenarios, which is pretty much what that test is all about.

So, the next time you’re cooking and testing your culinary prowess, remember that each degree matters—not just for the taste but for sharpening your mind! Whether you’re wrestling with turkey temperatures or dreaming up solutions for cognitive challenges, staying sharp is key.