ddhr.org - Not microwave safe

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Not microwave safe (6)

Aug 9, 2006

The biggest mistake of my life up to this point was getting dinner plates that aren't microwave safe. What a stupid thing. Why on earth would a company make plates that aren't microwave safe? What's the benefit? Was there a thought process behind that decision, and did someone make the call to go with a non-microwave safe material? If so, that person is a jerk. And an idiot. A jerkiot.

But when something isn't microwave safe, it doesn't mean it can't go in the microwave. It just means the object will heat up faster than the food that's likely to be placed on it. And if it's in the microwave for too long, it'll heat up past its "comfort level" and basically crack or burn. So the "solution" (I haven't perfected it yet) is to use the power control settings. Oddly enough, "power control" doesn't mean the microwave is producing any more or less power. It means it's turning the magnetron (the thing that makes a microwave work) on and off in cycles. Things with water molecules (and fats and sugars) in them are affected by a microwave's radiation, and this "effect" causes them to heat up. So by cycling the power, the non-microwaveable plate is allowed to cool off (by not continually injecting it with radiation), while the food stores its heat until the next power cycle. #technology

Comments

#1	Shara	Aug 10, 2006
	I don't even have a microwave. :)

#2	Dave	Aug 10, 2006
	Whoa. How can anyone not have a microwave? How do you warm up leftovers? How do you defrost meat? How do you survive at all?

#3	Shara	Aug 11, 2006
	I'm not a huge fan of microwaves. I think that my dad brainwashed me as a kid when he kept telling me not to stand in front of it while it was on. So on some level I feel like they are bad for you or something. As for warming up leftovers, I just do it on the stove or in the oven. Typically I don't eat leftovers, but when I do, I just use the stove....or eat whatever it is cold. As for defrosting meat, I wouldn't use a microwave if I had it anyway because somehow that always ended up cooking the meat, obviously I wasn't using the cool microwave defrost feature or something, so I decide what I'm having for dinner in the morning and if it's something frozen, I take it out of the freezer to defrost on the counter. I know, it's crazy!

#4	Rich	Aug 12, 2006
	I'm not a big fan of them either, but my reason is nerdier. Microwaves work by emitting radiation at a specific frequency (around 3 ghz) that will excite the electrons in the Hydrogen atoms of water molecules up to a high energy level. The actual heating occurs a moment later when the electron de-excites, re-emitting the same amount of energy it absorbed as heat. This is why microwaves work best on things that have a fairly high water content, as it's the water that actually converts the energy to heat the food. You've probably noticed the mesh pattern on the window of the microwave; that's a faraday cage. Depending on the size holes in a metal mesh, a specific frequency range of radiation will be blocked. Now, take a good look at that $40 microwave. How carefully do you think they shielded it? It's been tested, and the answer is not very well at all. A significant portion of the radiation is making it out. What will this do to you? The same thing it does to food, excite the Hydrogen in your water (which is what, like 90% of the body by mass?). This is, of course damaging to living tissue. This isn't the big problem as I see it, though. The real amusing part comes in when we realize that the model behind the functionality of the microwave isn't as simple as I stated earlier. The electrons aren't just bouncing between their ground state, and say their 27th excited state. There are secondary (and I'd assume tertiary and so on) excitations occurring as well. These can cause some electrons to gain enough energy that they are no longer bound. Now we have an ion. If we are talking about this happening to a person getting hit with leaking energy from a microwave, and ions forming in their living tissue, then that's the basis for cancer, rather than just a burn (obviously it would take a significant amount of exposure). If we are talking about food, think about that container its in. Say it's plastic. The heat of the food will soften the plastic, which means that the polymer chains aren't as strongly clumped together. Add to that mix, newely ionized molecules looking for company, and it's no wonder they tell you not to nuke stuff in plastic. Your food can actually chemically bond to the material, and then you eat it. I tend to use glass if I use a microwave at all, for that very reason. Thank you and goodnight.

#5	Dave	Aug 14, 2006
	Summing things up, only use a microwave if you want to eat plastic-laden food and get cancer.

#6	Shara	Aug 14, 2006
	Exactly.