The Wrong Deduction on Induction
The hottest trend in cooking is induction cooking. This clever device heats only the pan! How? An oscillating magnetic field penetrates the pan and generates oscillating electric currents in the pan. See this cool video. Just as in regular electric elements, the current in the pan encounters resistance and generates heat. Many web sites, and also a nice salesperson I met, incorrectly claim that magnets heat metals! The phenomenon should NOT be described as 'magnetic heating' (here is an example). Fueling this misconception is the fact that modern induction cookers require ferromagnetic pans. Non-magnetic copper and aluminum could work (and eventually will with newer models), but the problem lies in the low resistance of these metals.