Why does chocolate only melt smoothly in a pot inside hot water, but not in a pot that is directly heated?
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You put a thermometer in a pot of water as it boils, that thermometer stays at 100c until all the water boils off even though the stovetop is many hundred degrees higher. You put a pot of chocolate inside that water, pretty much guarantees the chocolate never gets past 100c as long as there’s still water in the bottom of the first pot, even though the stovetop is many hundreds of degrees higher. This let’s chocolate heat slowly and melt evenly. You put chocolate directly on the stovetop, then too soon one part of the chocolate is many hundred degrees and burning while another part is not even melted.
The water boiling in open pot not going past 100c (at sea level) is the latent heat (enthalpy) of vaporization.
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