To make progress on this problem, we need first to develop a mathematical model of what's going on, and then apply a numerical method to approximate the solution to that mathematical model.
Basic heat-flow modeling tells us that the following PDE must be true at each point in time and space:
ut = alpha2 * uxx,
where the subscripts indicate partial derivatives, and alpha is the diffusion coefficient.
In order to find a unique solution u(x,t) to this problem we need to specify initial and boundary conditions. In this case, the initial condition is simply u(x,0) = Tinit. The boundary condition on the left endpoint is ux(0,t)=0. This is reasonable since, by symmetry, there should be no heat flow across this central point. The boundary condition on the right endpoint is derived by accounting for heat exchange between the meat and the outside world. Because the brat is rotating, the temperature of the `outside world' varies with time --- the temperature varying from the temperature of the grill to the temperature of the air above the grill, and back again. To be specific, a reasonable boundary condition on the right edge would be
ux(R,t) = C * (Text(t) - u(R,t)),
where C is a known constant and we'll takeText(t) = Tave + Tdiff * cos(2*pi*t/Troll)
where
Tave = (Tgrill + Troom) / 2
Tdiff = (Tgrill - Troom) / 2
This leaves us with several more constants that need values. Below are some reasonable choices. These are scaled so that time is in minutes, distance is in centimeters, and temperature is in degrees C.
alpha = 1.236
Tinit = -4.0
Tgrill = 220.
Troom = 40.
Tdone = 90.
Troll = .2
C = 0.105 / 0.452 = (heat exchange coefficient) / (thermal conductivity)
So what we need to do is modify the parabolic2 code to reflect our boundary conditions. This means to add two equations and two unknowns: the equations corresponding to our boundary conditions, and the unknowns corresponding to the temperature at the left and right endpoints. It also means that the equations corresponding to points 1 and n-1 need to be modified to include terms involving unknown values at point 0 (the left end) and point n (the right end), respectively.
We need some discrete equations to approximate the boundary conditions: