Does Size Matter? (In boiling water)
By Michael Freeman mfree23@wgu.edu Project Design Plan
Cooking boxed or dried foods often requires a certain amount of boiling water. The water at such a high temperature speeds the hydrating/re-hydrating process. There are many different ways of boiling the water. When the cook is in a hurry to prepare the food, boiling the water quickly will accelerate the preparation period and put the food on the table minutes faster. Does water boil faster on the stove in a large, medium or small pot?

Literature Review
There are many different ways to boil water and boiled water can be used in many aspects of cooking. The need for boiling water has inspired inventors to create new designs for pots to boil water faster while using up to 30% less gas(Rhodes).
Rocket scientist, Dr. Thomas Povey designs cooling systems for jet engine manufacturers. As an avid outdoors-man, he realized that winds would waste up to 90% of the fuel used on the camp stove. He designed a pot that better utilizes the heat from the stove to boil water for purification or cook the food then he decided to apply his designs to standard kitchen pots (Rhodes)
The fins channel the flames from the stove along its surface heating more of the surface of the pan. When more of the pan is heated, the interior heats faster and therefore cooks the contents of the pot faster.
Carini's article focuses on the energy impacts of different stoves. He ranks six methods of boiling water by energy efficiency according to Jonas Ketterle. He ranks them in this order:
1. Electric kettle or induction cooktop powered by renewable energy source
2. Electric stove powered by renewable energy source
3. Gas stove
4. Electric kettle on grid electricity
5. Electric stove on grid electricity
6. Microwave (Carini)
Electric kettles and stoves utilize more energy than a gas stove because they require more energy and time to heat up. When that energy is utilized from renewable sources (i.e. solar, wind, etc...) the energy impact is minimal. A gas stove has a flame that is instantly hot and instantly cool. It doesn't require extra energy to heat up a cold element or glass top surface. On an electric stove, the element or glass top requires extra time and energy to get hot, only heats the bottom of the pan, and after the dial is turned to “off” the element or glass top stays hot wasting a lot of energy as it goes unused as it dissipates.
For this experiment, 3 cups of water starting at 75 degrees Fahrenheit, will be boiled in 3 separate and different sized containers. All of the cooking vessels will soak together for 2 minutes in a basin full of cool water to ensure the vessels all start at the same temperature. The vessels will be stainless steel pots or pans (not using lids to allow for thermometer). They will be heated on the stove's highest settings. The boiling point at this elevation has been determined by heating one quart of water prior to the experiment to boiling until the thermometer stops registering a change in temperature. It is 207.5 degrees Fahrenheit.

Experimental Design Steps
3 cups of water will be heated using 3 different methods as follows:
A. Large stock pot on large glass top stove element
B. Medium stock pot on medium glass top stove element
C. Small stock pot on small glass top stove element
1. 10 cups of water will be put into 1 gallon plastic pitcher with mixing plunger
2. All three cooking vessels will sit, submerged, in 75 degree water
3. The vessels will be dried
4. Water in the pitcher will be plunged and temperature will be measured
5. Each vessel will receive 3 cups water and begin cooking process.
6. 3 vessels on stove will be at maximum setting and stopwatch will be started
7. Each vessel will use the same thermometer
8. The time taken to reach 207.5 degrees Fahrenheit will be recorded

Reasoning
Since my stove is a glass topped, the heat is only through the bottom of the pan. The different sizes of pans will spread the water