Can you cook chicken by tossing in ice and slapping it with your hands? Scientists conducted an experiment to find out. (video)

Is it possible to cook a chicken by hitting it with ice cubes or striking it with your hand? This question may seem silly, but recently, more and more people are curious about the answer. Scientists have explained whether this is feasible both theoretically and practically, as reported by IFLScience.

According to physicist David Schmidt from the University of Illinois, in theory, kinetic energy can be used to generate heat. Thermal energy is partly a form of kinetic energy: some of it relates to the movement of tiny particles within a substance. This movement has kinetic energy, which we do not see because the directions of the particles are random and change very rapidly.

The main difference between thermal and kinetic energy is that the former represents chaotic particle movement, which is mostly invisible to the naked eye, while the latter is a uniform movement of those same particles, which can be observed.

In simple terms, it is sufficient to add kinetic energy to the chicken to cook it. But how often and how hard should one strike the chicken to make it edible? Physicist Parker Ormond found the answer to this question through calculations.

The formula for converting kinetic energy to thermal energy is 1/2mv²=mcT, where:

• the average human hand weighs about 0.4 kg;
• the average striking speed is 11 m/s;
• the average grilled chicken weighs 1 kg;
• the average specific heat capacity of chicken is 2720 J/kg·°C.

Ormond also assumed that the chicken must reach a temperature of 205°C to be considered "cooked," starting from a frozen state—meaning its initial temperature was 0°C. Ultimately, the researcher concluded that to cook the chicken with a single strike, it would need to be hit at a speed of 1665.65 m/s.

This is an incredibly high speed. However, fortunately, one can simply strike the chicken many times in succession to achieve the same result.

Later, Louis Weisz decided to test this theory in practice. His first experiment resulted in a warm chicken that was also destroyed. However, after some adjustments, he was able to pasteurize it over 8 hours using around 135,000 strikes.

Nevertheless, physicists warn that the method of cooking chicken with slaps has one rather curious drawback—every action has an equal and opposite reaction. In simple terms, if we cook the chicken with slaps, we will also cook our hand.

As for the ice cubes, scientists note that a chicken can be cooked by bombarding it with ice cubes if you strike it quickly enough.