@kimlockhartga@beige.party @ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org @alan@mindly.social @EllenInEdmonton@yeg.bike there are three main types of stoves commonly used in homes in the modern world
there are gas stoves, where a flammable gas is burned, usually natural gas but it could be propane. the problem is, sometimes the gas might not burn (if you have a leak, or combustion is incomplete), and even when it does burn, it can produce things that are harmful; CO2 at best, which can displace oxygen, but also produce nitrogen dioxide and soot particles, which are bad for breathing. these kind of stoves have two advantages for cooking; for one, you can easily see the flame which gives you a sense for how high or low the stove is turned, and you can quickly change the amount of heat being produced, there's little thermal mass outside of the pan itself, so if it's a bit too hot or a bit too cold you can quickly change it
then there are resistive electric stoves. these put electricity through a big resister, generally coiled up so it can heat the bottom of your cookware. sometimes the coiled resistor is exposed, you just put the pan right on it, sometimes it's embedded in a flat ceramic cooktop. it has the problem the cooking surface has a lot of thermal mass; so it can be slow to change temperature when you turn the dial, making it harder to control while you're cooking. I think that these are somewhat unfairly maligned, they have the advantage that they generally boil water much faster than gas stoves (unless you get a commercial grade gas stove) as they have higher heat output, and in most cases you can reasonably quickly control the temperature by just removing the pan briefly from the surface, that's what I do when I cook. but that does take a bit more management
the third is induction electric. they also have an electric coil; but instead of being a big resistor, it's basically a big inductor, a coil that lets current pass easily, creating a magnetic field. that magnetic field can induce an eddy current in a metallic pan. so instead of heating up the cooktop, you heat up the pan directly. this wastes less energy, and means you don't have a big thermal mass, so you can change temperature in your pan more easily. a downside is it only works with iron/steel, not pure aluminum, copper, or glass
