Thanks for the input.
You’re right....the heat on a flat top stove like mine is uneven and with my new attention to the physics of it all it’s a real pain. The bottoms of the pans are somehow “arched” and the liquids disperse all around the sides. I dunno, maybe it’s my old pans...sometimes I think I don’t have a clue.
I bought some Cuisinart skillets as a Christmas gift for the better half, and man - what a difference on that glass-top range! The heat, which had been uneven on every other piece of cookware we put on the range, was even, and FAST. I could boil a cup of water in a 3Q saucepan just as quickly as I could bring it to a boil in a 700W microwave. The heat transfer is much more efficient when/where the bottom of the cookware is actually in contact with the range top.
I still like cooking with gas better, and we still use some cheap (not quite flat) skillets on the range. But there is a remarkable difference in range performance, depending on the flatness of the cookware. If you can feel it rock, or make it rock, it won't be performing up to its capability.