• TargaryenTKE@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        4 minutes ago

        Brass is an alloy where the two metals are melted together, the pennies are a zinc core with a thin copper coating. Think of the former as a chocolate/vanilla swirl and the latter as a vanilla cone dipped in chocolate but ya know, with chemistry magic going on

    • OwOarchist@pawb.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      12
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      21 hours ago

      For most of them, yes. But if you get old enough pennies, they’ll be pure copper.

      However, it’s easy to tell just looking at this that many of these pennies have the newer design, so they’re definitely only copper plated.

        • OwOarchist@pawb.social
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          16
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          19 hours ago

          They’re all real copper on the outside. Even the fake ones are copper plated. So the surface you’re pissing on is copper regardless and would show the same reactions.

          If you want a simple way to find pure-copper pennies, you don’t need piss – just look at the dates on them. Dates before 1982 will be pure copper (with a few rare exceptions), and after 1982 are all copper-plated zinc (with one rare exception).

            • OwOarchist@pawb.social
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              3
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              4 hours ago

              Yeah, those are one of the pre-1982 exceptions.

              There are also some extremely rare copper plated aluminum pennies from the 70’s out there. (That was done as an experiment for reducing the cost of the penny, and they were never supposed to go into circulation. But a few of them did end up in circulation and are very valuable among collectors today.)

  • Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    19 hours ago

    Feeling weird/outed this is a shitpost. Just last year searched for copper bottomed carbon steel pan for this exact reason. Didn’t find anything, but I still like the idea. Carbon steel is pretty shit at conduction.

    • davetortoise@reddthat.com
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      8
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      15 hours ago

      Copper pans exist but they can be a pain to cook with. The high thermal conductivity means they heat up much faster than you expect, so it’s easier to accidentally burn stuff, and they also cool down much more quickly once off the heat which can also be annoying. Plus you need to worry about oxide formation and food sticking much more than you do with steel pans.

      • Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        4 hours ago

        I know but a copper bottom to improve conductivity really helps carbon steel pans which are really bad about getting hot spots. I have a copper plate I put under mine and it works great. You don’t want a pure copper pan as it doesn’t have the nonstick properties, easy maintenance, and it would also be expensive. But a coper bottom would be nice.

        • davetortoise@reddthat.com
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          3 hours ago

          I don’t want to contradict your lived experience but I’m quite sceptical that the improvement is real. Adding a layer of solid material between the heat source and the steel can only reduce the amount of energy transferred to the steel, as some will be absorbed by the material no matter how conductive it is.

          • Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            2 hours ago

            If you have the materials can avoid taking my word for it. Use a temp gun and check 5 spots or so on a carbon steel pan on the burner. Use a larger pan and smaller burner to exgaerate the effect. Repeat with a copper plate (needs to be at least size of pan bottom, bigger doesn’t seem to detract from effect. You’ll see much more consistent heating. Works for cast iron too - actually more notable at first and the the effect diminishes somewhat as the thick iron holds onto heat and becomes more uniform (still helps though)

            • davetortoise@reddthat.com
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              1 hour ago

              Oh right! I didn’t realise you were talking about distributing heat more evenly, that’s my bad. Yes I can definitely see that being effective.

              • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                1 hour ago

                Another version that can work is if you have two pans where the bases are both say 5mm, but one of them is all steel while the other is 3mm copper welded to 2mm steel, the copper one should heat up faster than the all steel one. No idea how well copper welds to steel though.

      • OtakuAllTheWay@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        8
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        15 hours ago

        Also can’t cook acidic foods like tomatoes and vinegar if the copper pan is unlined. Since the copper will leech into the food.