Magnets are so amazing, they kept Einstein enthralled in their mystery for many years. How can these “things“, with no moving parts, generate forces? Why does that even happen?
This post is not about how magnets work. It is about how magnets can help make food easier to cook. Cooking rice can be tricky. If you don’t cook it well, you end up with raw rice. If you cook it too slowly, you will have burnt rice. Of course, after some trial and error, everyone figures it out. But what if we had a device that cooked rice automatically and properly time after time?
Welcome to the rice cooker. This little electric pot can cook predefined amounts of rice perfectly, time after time. And the way it does it is by using the properties of magnets. So how does it work? Certain magnets lose their magnetic properties after they reach a certain temperature. Water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit and once the boiling point is reached, it and anything around it, cannot get hotter. Once the water is boiled off, the rice (the contents within), can reach a higher temperature. So, with that in mind, you can setup a system that works like this:
- Include a heating element that is hot enough to boil water (212 degrees Fahrenheit)
- In the pot, have a magnet, whose properties are such, that it will lose its magnetism once it reaches a temperature higher than that of the boiling point, and less than a temperature that would burn the rice. Say 225 degrees Fahrenheit.
- The on/off switch will turn on the heating element. The water, at some point, will reach its boiling point, which will in turn cook the rice. Because the properties of the magnet used for this system are such, that it has to reach 225 degrees Fahrenheit before they are lost, the on switch can remain enabled.
- At some point, all of the water will boil off, or be absorbed by the rice. When this happens, the temperature of the pot can actually climb higher than 212, and as it gets warmer, it can go past the magnet’s break off point of 225. When this happens, the magnet loses its magnetism, which in turn breaks the on/off circuit and the pot shuts off.
- The result, perfectly cooked rice, time after time.
