[dkarl]

All your stove can tell you is how much heat it's producing. It can't tell you how fast your pan heats up, how long your pan has been on the stove, and whether you just tossed in a half pound of ground pork.

What you can do with this information is see relative smoke points. Unrefined versions of oils have lower smoke points than refined, extra-virgin olive oil has a lower smoke point than peanut oil and canola oil. If you buy an oil at the store that you've never used before, you can check whether its smoke point is higher or lower than the oil you're accustomed to using. If you're in the middle of cooking realize you've run out of everything except the flaxseed oil you've been using for salad dressing, you can look at this chart and realize you should probably run to the store rather than try to cook with it.