Question

Why is the base of the cooking pan generally made thick?

Answer 1

Hint: Flames of the heat source do not uniformly spread on the bottom of the cooking surface. Thin base has lower heat capacity hence would quickly transfer heat and heat wouldn’t spread sideways as much. Thick base ensures slower heat transfer, that way the heat is able to spread sideways for uniform cooking.

Complete step by step answer:
Thermal capacity:
It is also known as heat capacity. It is defined as the amount of heat supplied to an object such that it produces a unit increases in temperature.
S.I. unit of heat is joule per kelvin.
Specific heat capacity:
Amount of heat energy required by a body to raise temperature of a substance by one degree. When a cooking pan is heated, most of the heat transfers from the bottom to the top while some transfers sideways. This means that if the heat source below the pan is not uniform then it won’t even spread uniformly on the top surface.
Thicker base allows one to retain maximum heat energy. That way the heat gets a chance to spread sideways. This improves the uniformity of the heating inside the cooking pan.

Additional Information:
Physical state in which the heat capacity of a substance is lowest is in gaseous state. In this state there is a lot of space in between the atoms or molecules. Even a small amount of heat can lead to a high degree of randomness. This is just opposite in case of solid-state substances.

Note:
One would think that higher heat capacity of a utensil is better for cooking because it would heat faster. But it is completely the other way around. Higher heat capacity means that the utensil will just hold the heat and not let it pass through as much as a lower heat capacity will allow.