The Frying Pan or The Pancake Guitar
This is a more complicated question than you might expect. There are three basic way heat moves, convection, radiation, and conduction. Convection moves heat around by the rising and falling (currents) of some medium like air or water. The currents form, because heated material (in general) is less dense than cooler material. Therefore, convection *never* happens in the absence of gravity. Radiation is always in the form of light, specifically infrared. The warmth you feel when sunlight touches your skin is this kind heat. Lastly, there's conduction where heat moves from one thing to another by contact. Frying pan cooking (dry) primarily uses conduction, but radiation and convection do play roles. Frying pan cooking (with oil) primarily uses convection, but conduction is involved if the food sticks to the bottom.
The heat used for frying is transferred to the pan by conduction and radiation and is transferred to the fried object by conduction through the oil.
A pancake griddle is designed in shape and coating for cooking pancakes. Frying pans are designed to fry foods in oil, butter, etc., so they are not coated the same way as a griddle, if at all. Your pancakes are less likely to char on the griddle.
A spatula can be used not only to flip over pancakes, but to do the same with fried eggs or omelets or hamburgers. In fact, it can be used to turn over anything you are frying in a flat-bottomed skillet or frypan.
A pancake.
Pancake night
This is a great question as it is Pancake Day today, Tuesday 24th February 2009. It's not called Pancake Racing - it is a Pancake Race and is held annually on Shrove Tuesday. Competitors stand at the line, much as they do on a 400m athletics track and, when the whistle is sounded, racers run the distance, tossing cooked pancakes into the air and catching them in the frying pan (skillet) without dropping them. This is a fun kids/mums race but not as much fun as making the pancakes, filling them with sugar, lemon, chocolate drops, cream, jam, marmite...wahtever and eating them.
You can make omelets, breakfast casseroles, frittatas, souffles, quiches, french toast, and eggs benedict. Eggs can be prepared by frying, boiling, baking and poaching.
shallow frying in a frying pan
Conduction: Ice cubes melt quickly on a hot frying pan Convection: warm air moves toward the poles Radiation: The sun bombards Earth with light
A britanny,french pancake