[ELI5] How does a rice cooker “know” the timing to switch from cook to warm when there’s no more water in it?
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When water gets to 100 C it turns to steam.
Turning water to steam takes energy, and if you put more energy in, it just makes more water turn to steam, rather than making the water hotter.
Rice is done when the water is boiled away, so they put energy in until all the water is boiled away, then that energy starts going into making the rice hotter.
Some rice cookers use a sensor to detect the increase heat.
But if you have one of those rice cookers with a tab that makes a clunk when you press it, it doesn’t really have a sensor.
What happens is that there’s a magnet put near the wire for power. When you pressed down the magnet stuck to the bottom and connected the power.
Now when a magnet gets too hot it stops being a magnet.
So when all the water boiled off, the magnet got too hot, stop being a magnet and then fell off, disconnecting the power.
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