A kitchen disaster turned into a viral science lesson when a woman’s stainless steel pan exploded on her electric stove, sending hot metal across her kitchen. The incident, shared by TikTok user @anniesright, got millions of views and led a professional welder to explain the hidden dangers of heating layered cookware too much. As per Daily Dot, the woman said she was using her Cuisinart stainless steel pan on an electric stove when things went wrong. She had heated the pan using the water droplet test to check if it was ready for cooking. But when she tilted the pan to a 30 or 45 degree angle, hot metal suddenly exploded from the pan, spreading across her stove and floor. She later went to urgent care after hot metal dried on her finger and had to be pulled off. She said she felt lucky that the metal did not hit her face or eyes. Pennsylvania-based welder Anne from @highergroundwelding gave a detailed explanation of what likely happened. “Visible red glow confirms that the pan was being used at excessive temperatures. And that would be consistent with severe overheating to delamination temperatures,” Anne said in her response video. She explained that the pan had been heated way past safe cooking temperatures, making the inside layers fail. How stainless steel pans are actually made Anne explained that most stainless steel pans are not solid metal but are built with multiple layers. These pans usually have an aluminum core placed between two layers of stainless steel, a design known as tri ply or clad construction. The aluminum core helps heat spread evenly and keeps the cookware light, while the stainless steel outside gives strength and a safe cooking surface. The welder compared this layered design to everyday items like pennies, which have zinc centers wrapped in copper, or candy like Reese’s cups with soft centers inside hard shells. This design lets cookware use the best parts of different metals. But this design has limits when it gets too hot. @highergroundwelding Replying to @heygotanygwapes and @anniesright more welding hazards in the kitchen than most know! #learning #welding #metallurgy #science ♬ original sound – Anne When a pan gets too hot on an electric stove, the aluminum core can reach its melting point of 660 degrees Celsius (1220 degrees Fahrenheit). Anne explained that the melted aluminum fills empty spaces inside the pan and builds up pressure. “That foldy melty aluminum started to liquefy. It started to fill any available spaces, and it would have gone to the weakest point in the stainless steel. With probably just enough compression in there to burst through at a certain point,” she said. The pressure builds until the outer stainless steel layer breaks open, just like an overfilled balloon bursting. The video got a lot of attention online, with over 500,000 views and more than 2,500 comments. Many viewers liked the clear scientific explanation, with one saying that their attention span was just fine after watching the detailed breakdown. Others shared similar experiences with different cookware brands on electric stoves, showing this is not just one case but a bigger safety issue with tri ply cookware when people use it wrong at very high temperatures. The incident has since joined other viral moments that sparked educational conversations across social media platforms.