Okay, I have a Stainless Steal pot that I was using to cook some pasta in, and when doing so I noticed that the handles, directly attached to it, by metal and they themselves were made of metal, did NOT heat up. Yet the pot immediately around the area of the handles did heat up. How is this possible? Does it have something to do with the shape and structure of the handles and how they’re attached to the pot?
Can someone please explain this phenomenon?
It’s steel, not steal. And it probably does have something to do with the way the handles are attached, perhaps by a thermally-insulating adhesive.
[nit-pick] It’s stainless steel
Stainless steel is a poor conductor of heat - about 10 times less than a typical aluminum alloy [AISI 304 vs Al alloy 195] or ~25 times less than pure copper.
While the heat is being conducted from the external pot to your hand it is also losing heat into the air. That’s why the temperature of the handle closer to the pot is hotter than the end.
The pot handle isn’t a solid handle - it’ll be made from a rolled up sheet of stainless steel. By having a smaller surface area in contact with the pot, this further reduces the heat flow from the pot to your hand.
The handle is likely to be riveted to the pot. Since there’s a break in the material, it’ll introduce another thermal resistance and (yeap, you guessed it) reduce the amount of heat flowing along the handle.
Heh, geez. One mistake and I get hounded twice in a row. I had a few beers in me… so give me a break 
Thanks for the answers though.