Believe it or not

Geo-TH,In · Jul 11, 2021

I was boiling eggs in a copper bottom pan. The handle started moving up and down. Then it started rotating clockwise..

I pushed the pan over so you can see the wire heating elements.
If I had temperature on high and pan centered the pan would rotate.

I'm guessing the hearing wires was inducing currents in the copper bottom.

If I have higher speed internet and knew how to post a video I would show you the handle moving up an down while pan rotating.

Believe it or not.

JMOR · Jul 11, 2021

I bet Paul "Revere's" horse had that up and down motion , too.

old · Jul 11, 2021

I don't boil my eggs any more I use a veggie steamer basket and use a needle to poke a hole in the end of each egg. Only enough to put a hole in the shell. That way they peel a whole lot easier

Janicholson · Jul 11, 2021

Contact heat expansion with rhythmic heat/cool cycles progressing around the pan bottom, coupled with the pans inertia. Guaranteed. Jim

SHALER · Jul 11, 2021

As a professional meteorologist, I will disclose to you this is an example of the Coriolis Effect. If you were boiling eggs in the southern hemisphere it would rotate counterclockwise.

johnofnewhaven · Jul 11, 2021

Also the bottom of the pan is not totally flat

NIK OWEN · Jul 11, 2021

AMEN...

Geo-TH,In · Jul 11, 2021

You could right. Heat is warping pan, convex.
It takes high heat to make it rotate and handle move up and down. Also pan has to be centered over heating elements.
I think pan is magnetically acting like the rotor of a motor.

db4600 · Jul 11, 2021

Weve got a Corliss Engine at Junkshow. It runs on steam from our Leffel kettle and the flywheel runs counter clockwise. So if it were in Perth the flywheel would run clockwise or no?

Dave41A · Jul 11, 2021

No, this is not an example of the Coriolis effect. The Coriolis acceleration is the product of the tangential and radial velocities. The radial is zero in this case, so the Coriolis acceleration is zero.

Dave41A · Jul 11, 2021

Corliss and 'Coriolis' are not the same thing. That engine will run the same direction wherever it is, unless the operator reverses it.

rustred · Jul 11, 2021

well dont turn that burner on high so its red hot! just before red hot and it will not do that. save your stove element and all this comotion.

john in la · Jul 11, 2021

All I know is you do not have enough water in the pot or them eggs are bad.

Janicholson · Jul 11, 2021

Turning is not from induction, there is some, but it is not segmented, or rotational. The heat of the burner, and the cold of the pan (with its slight convex surface (look at the wear pattern)) is touching and flexing in three places the sloshing of the liquid, or the standing waves in it cause it to rotate about the three points as each heats, in contact, and cools when airborne. Jim

dlbuck · Jul 11, 2021

Please, Please, Please get higher speed internet so I can see the handle moving up and down while the pan is rotating.

Gabby Hayes · Jul 11, 2021

Time to get the crucifix out George.

gears · Jul 11, 2021

Gentlemen, are we all this bored? Besides, are these free range eggs and is it city or well water?

Gabby Hayes · Jul 11, 2021

Do you need me to send you some blessed holy water George?
Email should be open......

Dave41A · Jul 11, 2021

The simplest explanation is that the bottom of the pan was slightly wet, and the water was boiling off as it got hot. These little bubbles of steam lifted the pan off the stove a little. This happens with the flat-top cookstoves like you have. That accounts for the lifting.

The other part of it is that the stove is likely not perfectly level, and the weight of the handle just worked its way around to the natural lowest position, where it then stopped.

When the stove is off and cool, put a ball bearing on the burner's location and see what it does.

John in Md. · Jul 12, 2021

The bottom of your Revere Ware is warped. Ours does the same thing on our glass top range. I took a rubber mallet to ours and they stopped for a while, but it comes back.

MarkB_MI · Jul 12, 2021

Hmm. I suppose eddy current could be involved, but I think it's strictly a mechanical phenomenon. The eggs vibrating in the boiling water cause sympathetic resonance in the pan. That vibration reduces the friction between the pan and heating element to the point that any imbalance will cause the pan to rotate. Also, the clockwise rotation might just be due to the direction the element is wound; it might be easier for the pan to turn clockwise than counterclockwise as it hops up and down on the element.

Did you see any movement before the water started to boil?

Have you tried to reproduce the phenomenon without eggs in the pan?

DoubleO7 · Jul 12, 2021

So....
Which tractor laid these eggs?
The red one or the orange one?
Maybe you should hatch some.
You might get a Farmallota or two.

Two Dogs · Jul 12, 2021

Are you bored enough to be reading this?

GordoSD · Jul 12, 2021

Keep that Revere wear out of the dishwasher before you totally destroy the handle.
it's not called a panwasher for a reason.

showcrop · Jul 12, 2021

I remember watching my mother's warped Revere ware pan do that 60 years ago. Ho Hum. It isn't any more interesting now than then.

Geo-TH,In · Jul 12, 2021

No movement before boiling.
Tried to get it to rotate CCW. Only CW.
Pan isn't flat. Only works when pan is centered.
This is a first for me.
Simple though I would share.
Believe it or not.
I do have a video. Someday I may figure out how to post it from smart phone.

Some asked. The eggs are from the Easter Bunny.
Happy days are here.

MarkB_MI · Jul 13, 2021

> No movement before boiling.

So the vibration of the eggs is critical for the phenomenon to occur, probably eliminating the static friction that would normally keep the pan in place. What's unknown is the source of the force that causes the pan to rotate.

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