Check this out! I bet you didn’t know you could boil water with paper underneath it!?
Induction cooktops transfer heat magnetically, which makes them more energy efficient than gas or electric, meaning more heat into the pan and less wasted into the room. Gas ranges are only 40-60% efficient, while electric is 60-70% efficient. The clear winner is induction with 80-90% of the heat actually being used to cook your food. With a solid glass cooking surface, they are super easy to wipe down and appear to seamlessly melt into your countertop. Since the heating elements only generate heat in magnetic items, spilled food or liquids never become baked on messes. Induction cooktops can boil water in less than half the time it takes a gas or electric range, which finally proves your mother wrong — a watched pot does boil!
One caveat is your pots and pans must be magnetic otherwise your watched pot will never boil, but most likely you already have the required cookware. If a magnet sticks to the bottom you are good to go. Without the visual glow of an electric coil or flame from a gas burner, induction cooktops are hard to tell if they are hot without looking at the warning light telling you the surface is hot. But the heat is only residual heat from the pan into the glass surface, which is why you can cook on top of towels or other materials that would spell FIRE fast on a gas or electric cooktop. Cooking is just culinary chemistry, and the cool science of induction cooktops is here for faster and more efficient ‘experiments.’