One day during cooking class, the teacher, Mrs. Jones, was extolling her secrets for preparing perfect sauces. When she ordered the class to the stoves to prepare their assignments, she said, “Don’t forget to use wooden spoons.”

As Jack stirred his sauce, he contemplated the mystery of the wooden spoon and decided it must have something to do with heat conduction. He approached Mrs. Jones to test his theory. “Why wooden spoons?” he asked.

“Because,” she replied, “if I had to sit here listening to all your metal spoons banging against metal pots, I’d go nuts.”