Where exactly IS the back burner?

I just tried to make amends at DailyEats.com for my spamming of last night. A post there by Aliza reminded me of a goof from long ago, and here is the comment I left:

Something came to mind at your mention of errors while cooking, such as mistaking teaspoons for tablespoons. In my early teens, I went through a phase where I cooked a lot. I goofed up, too, and I would have to concentrate hard so as not to miss a crucial step. Once I was cooking a number of dishes at once, and running out of counter space, I set a glass bowl on a vacant oven burner and starting adding ingredients for homemade scalloped potatoes. Layers of potato, cheese and spices were building up nicely when the bowl fell apart with a CRACK. Trying to heat up a saucepan, I had mistakenly turned on the burner holding the bowl. The potatoes were scalded rather than scalloped. Keith, YaGoof!