After climbing to the top of a mountain, Phil is hungry and gets out his cookpot for a good pasta meal. Unfortunately, as it’s not a pressure cooker it will take longer to cook. What can Phil do to cook the spaghetti more quickly?
(He’s already turned the fuel on maximum, and he doesn’t have to stay with the pot)
Answer
He adds a lot of salt to the water to increase the boiling point (actually, anything that would dissolve would do that, but he prefers salt). In theory, he could also round the bottom edge of his pot by grinding it (which would also increase the surface area exposed to hot air because of roughness), but he’d probably spend more time doing that than he’d save on cooking time.