The reason for large copper bottoms is for even heating (and the reason that only the bottom is copper). Since copper can dissipate heat very well, the heat is spread
across the pan more evenly. It is "large" to limit warping, provide a reserve, and still provide even heating when cold food is thrown on it.
Interesting. I might just have to get some copper pans now.
A copper pan of will actually cool down ... quicker then a aluminum ... pan
of equal size.
Hmmm. That's what I thought before, but that article seems to say
otherwise:
While copper is a good conductor of *heat*,
it is inferior to *aluminum* for getting rid of the *heat* it has absorbed.
And it makes sense. Foil is usually cool enough to grab out of a heated
oven with my hands. But then again, i've never tried copper foil, so
maybe that's
not such a fair example.
Correct..
Higher number means more heat transfer
Thermal Conductivity, W/cm-K
Aluminum 2.165
Copper 3.937
Gold 2.913
Iron .669
Silver 4.173
Yeah, that looks familar. I think i remember reading that when i took
physics.
The fins increase the surface area exposed to the air flow allowing more cooling. Just as a soda dumped on a hot sidewalk will warm up much quicker then if it was sitting
in a can on the same sidewalk.
That makes perfect sense.
Here is an interesting page about copper and aluminum (I used a Google cache
because I could not get to the leading page from the site directly) -->
http://216.239.35.100/search?q=cache:pXcbnqmZaPkC:www.benchtest.com/alum%26copp.html+specific+heat+capacity+aluminum&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
This pages logic seems strange to me. If aluminum transfers heat slower
than copper, then wouldn't using a copper base and aluminum fins create a
heat build up in the base? I mean the fins wouldn't be able to receive
the heat as fast as the copper can give it out, so wouldn't that be a
bottleneck that
would limit efficiency?
--Ray
