eli5: why isn’t it possible to cook e.g. cookies at twice the temperature for half the time? obviously i know it isn’t possible, but *why*? what’s the physics behind it?
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To answer this, let’s talk about toilets. Imagine that in a cold bathroom you have two toilets: one with a plastic seat, and one with a metal seat. When you sit on the plastic seat, it may feel a little cool, but otherwise not too bad. If you sit on the metal seat, it will feel horrifically cold, and you’ll probably be concerned about the safety of your genitalia. They’re in the same room and are the same temperature, but the metal one feels much, much colder. Why is that? It’s because the heat in your butt is stolen much more quickly by the metal toilet seat. The plastic one steals the heat much more slowly.
Cookies are like plastic toilet seats (especially ones made by my mother! She never really got the hang of cooking…). The heat moves slowly into them. If the oven is too hot, by the time that the heat reaches the middle of the cookie and finishes cooking it, the outside will be burnt.
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