“Mathematicians . . . have devised a formula for barbecuing the perfect hamburger. All you need to know is the mass of the burger, its thermal conductivity, heat capacity, convective heat transfer coefficient, and the temperature of the grill. Dr Dilwyn Edwards noted that the mass, m, is proportional to Ax where A is the area of the burger and x is its thickness. If all other parameters remain the same — heat of grill, absence of downpour, mood of cook — then t, the total cooking time, is proportional to x2A.”
Alan Hamilton, The Times, July 29