5 STEM Facts About Turkey Day 🦃

Can you smell that? The overwhelming aromas of gravy, mashed potatoes, and your parent’s succulent dessert? Or, perhaps you plan on spending your time volunteering at a soup kitchen, where you are serving others a fortunate feast! Wherever Thanksgiving Day may take you, just know that somehow STEM is involved!

That’s why our new program Science Go Seek invites members to take a deeper look into STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) and find the various ways in which it connects to what we love, like sports, fashion, food, music, and more! You can explore interesting topics within all the cool areas of STEM.

Here’s the real tea about Thanksgiving Day, if you look closely you can discover how STEM works to bring you all the juicy realness of this day of giving. Don’t believe us? Well we’ve got the receipts!

Time to sit down and devour these five STEM facts about Turkey Day!

1) Shed No Tears

If you're prepping or chopping up veggies, you may also be trying to avoid THE ONION. This root vegetable can bring on the tears, but do you know why? There are enzymes within onions that when cut release a chemical, lachrymatory factor synthase (LFS), that causes eye irritation. Slicing them lengthwise (in the direction of the fibers) can reduce this as well as help the onion retain its shape. Additionally, you can reduce those tears by plunging the onion in chilling cold water. By doing this, the cold temperature will reduce the amount of LFS that can reach your pupils.

2) Thaw The Turkey!

Deep frying turkey has become a trend over the past several years and can be a great alternative to throwing it in the oven. But what happens when we forget the physics of something so cold coming into contact with something so hot. This video detailing why you should NEVER deep fry a frozen turkey, explains the key is to make sure for every 10 pounds of turkey you take 24 hours to defrost it- count ‘em, 24 hours before it is submerged in hot oil. The ice surrounding the frozen holiday bird begins boiling instantly,* “...the water, surrounded by large amounts of ultra-hot oil, will heat up rapidly, boiling and turning into water vapor (steam) almost instantly.”* From there things can quickly overflow and begin to ignite. Yikes!

3) Snoopy is Made from What?!

The 97th Macy’s Day Parade this year is bringing new floats to the streets of New York City. The interesting way we see engineering used in the making of these balloons is what they are made of. Forget for a second that 240 gallons of paint is mixed for each balloon, these designers are working over time, sketching the balloons to then add into a computer that produces a flat model that forms a pattern. Then the magic happens! The pattern is used to create pieces of the balloon made from nylon cloth with a urethane coating. This allows the engineers to use heat and melt the pieces together to form a very tight seal to keep the air in. These balloons can reach more than 50 feet in height! Learn more about the process with this behind the scenes look at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade from HGTV.

4) 3,2,1…Dough?

If you’re an excellent baker, you may have plans to stir up some great desserts to accompany a great feast. Baking itself is art grounded in chemistry, from the thermodynamics of bread baking, to understanding the chemical reaction between amino acids, proteins and reducing sugars. But did you know that there is a math formula to making the perfect pie crust? It’s an easy 3:2:1 ratio where you take 3 parts flour, 2 parts fat (like butter), and 1 part ice-cold water and you’ve got a fast and easy pie crust! Remember 3, 2, 1 and not 3.14159265359…

5) The Crème de la Crème

Nothing completes a Thanksgiving feast like a beautiful centerpiece filled with hot delicious gravy. That magic serveware, the gravy boat, is unique and yet so effective in pouring the delicious sauce. Thanks to the French Duke of Argyll, John Campbell, in the 18th century who invented the first type of gravy boat, “...a container that preserved the heat with a double-layered sealed jacket that was filled with hot water.” The argyll is a covered gravy holder of silver or other metal containing a detachable central vessel for hot water to keep the gravy warm. This product design refers to the serveware as a gravy warmer, but we can agree ‘gravy boat’ is much more fun!

Hungry for more STEM facts? You can continue to explore the ways science, technology, engineering and math impacts the things you love with our program Science Go Seek! You’ll discover unexpected STEM connections like how chemistry might relate to archery using our STEM Blender, and then share your findings for the chance to earn a $2,000 scholarship. Additionally, if you want to advocate for more STEM programs in your schools, contact your elected officials here to make your voice heard.

Remember, the world of STEM becomes more vast each day, explore it and you may uncover something new!