as well as a limit to the tones that the ear can hear, especially on the treble end. There is a type of piano, a Boesendorfer Concert Grand, which has 94 different keys, [and a full eight-octave range, with all six of the extra keys added to the bass end], but by and large our 88 keys represent the extent to which pianos can be made to faithfully reproduce tones that our ears can hear.
Even if more keys would gain the slightest advantage in tones, there is also the consideration of size and weight. The Boesendorf is almost ten feet in length, exceeded only by the ten-feet, two-inch Fazioli Concert Grand. Only a handful of compositions ever ask to use these extra keys, not enough reason to motivate Boesendorfer to add the keys in the first place. According to Brady, “The Boesendorfer company says the extra strings are really there to add sympathetic resonance and richness to the regular notes of the piano’s range.”
Submitted by Guy Washburn of La Jolla, California.
W hy Do Rice Cakes Hold Together?
Our correspondent, duly reading the ingredient list on his package of rice cakes, notes that only rice and salt are listed. He rightfully wonders how rice cake makers manage to keep together what would seem to be fragile rice. Is there a secret binding ingredient in the mix?
We’re sure the rice cake producers would say that the secret ingredient is love, but emotion has nothing to do with it. We contacted several rice cake producers and received the same explanation from all of them (a rarity in the Imponderables business) about how rice cakes are formed.
First, uncooked rice is soaked in water and then mixed with a little salt (and in some cases, with a bit of oil). This soaking is important, because the moisture from the rice is going to help puff it up when it is heated in the grain-popping machine, as Quaker Foods and Beverages explains:
A rice cake is formed when heat and pressure are added to the grain, causing it to expand abruptly. A portion of grain is set onto a round, metal pan — like a mini–baking pan. As a hot cylinder presses down onto the pan, sizzling pressure is released. The heat is so intense that after only a few seconds, the grain makes a loud popping noise as it bursts. This process causes the grains to “pop” and interweave. There are no oils, additives, or binding ingredients used during this process.
If the rice cake is flavored, the seasonings are applied after the popping process, and doesn’t affect the sticking together of the rice itself.
Rice cakes date back to 3000 B.C. in Southeast Asia, and home cooks have never been privy to the specialized equipment that modern commercial rice cake makers enjoy. Home cooks in Asia make rice cakes by soaking glutinous rice overnight, steaming the rice until it is soft, grinding the heck out of it with a mortar and pestle, and then pounding the mashed rice with a mallet. Then they knead the rice like bread dough and cook it, resulting in a rice cake (or rice ball) with a smoother consistency than that of Western cakes.
Whether using the traditional methods or specialized metal molds designed only for rice cake production, bakers seem to have no trouble getting rice cakes to hold together — now if only they could manage to produce some taste!
Submitted by Dane Bowerman of Muir, Pennsylvania.
W hy Doesn’t the Water in Fire Hydrants Freeze During the Winter?
There may be no such thing as a dumb question, but there are certainly ones that are based on false assumptions. The water doesn’t freeze in hydrants for the same reason that the water in empty ice cube trays doesn’t form cubes. You can’t freeze what’s not there!
Bob Ward, former president of the SPFAAMFAA (Society for the Preservation and Appreciation of Antique Motor Fire Apparatus in America), told
Imponderables
that there is a nut at the top of a hydrant that controls the flow of water to the hydrant. When a firefighter wants to open the hydrant, a wrench is
Even if more keys would gain the slightest advantage in tones, there is also the consideration of size and weight. The Boesendorf is almost ten feet in length, exceeded only by the ten-feet, two-inch Fazioli Concert Grand. Only a handful of compositions ever ask to use these extra keys, not enough reason to motivate Boesendorfer to add the keys in the first place. According to Brady, “The Boesendorfer company says the extra strings are really there to add sympathetic resonance and richness to the regular notes of the piano’s range.”
Submitted by Guy Washburn of La Jolla, California.
W hy Do Rice Cakes Hold Together?
Our correspondent, duly reading the ingredient list on his package of rice cakes, notes that only rice and salt are listed. He rightfully wonders how rice cake makers manage to keep together what would seem to be fragile rice. Is there a secret binding ingredient in the mix?
We’re sure the rice cake producers would say that the secret ingredient is love, but emotion has nothing to do with it. We contacted several rice cake producers and received the same explanation from all of them (a rarity in the Imponderables business) about how rice cakes are formed.
First, uncooked rice is soaked in water and then mixed with a little salt (and in some cases, with a bit of oil). This soaking is important, because the moisture from the rice is going to help puff it up when it is heated in the grain-popping machine, as Quaker Foods and Beverages explains:
A rice cake is formed when heat and pressure are added to the grain, causing it to expand abruptly. A portion of grain is set onto a round, metal pan — like a mini–baking pan. As a hot cylinder presses down onto the pan, sizzling pressure is released. The heat is so intense that after only a few seconds, the grain makes a loud popping noise as it bursts. This process causes the grains to “pop” and interweave. There are no oils, additives, or binding ingredients used during this process.
If the rice cake is flavored, the seasonings are applied after the popping process, and doesn’t affect the sticking together of the rice itself.
Rice cakes date back to 3000 B.C. in Southeast Asia, and home cooks have never been privy to the specialized equipment that modern commercial rice cake makers enjoy. Home cooks in Asia make rice cakes by soaking glutinous rice overnight, steaming the rice until it is soft, grinding the heck out of it with a mortar and pestle, and then pounding the mashed rice with a mallet. Then they knead the rice like bread dough and cook it, resulting in a rice cake (or rice ball) with a smoother consistency than that of Western cakes.
Whether using the traditional methods or specialized metal molds designed only for rice cake production, bakers seem to have no trouble getting rice cakes to hold together — now if only they could manage to produce some taste!
Submitted by Dane Bowerman of Muir, Pennsylvania.
W hy Doesn’t the Water in Fire Hydrants Freeze During the Winter?
There may be no such thing as a dumb question, but there are certainly ones that are based on false assumptions. The water doesn’t freeze in hydrants for the same reason that the water in empty ice cube trays doesn’t form cubes. You can’t freeze what’s not there!
Bob Ward, former president of the SPFAAMFAA (Society for the Preservation and Appreciation of Antique Motor Fire Apparatus in America), told
Imponderables
that there is a nut at the top of a hydrant that controls the flow of water to the hydrant. When a firefighter wants to open the hydrant, a wrench is
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