Re: My day out in Tempe

"Larry Krzewinski" <Feerless_Freep@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:043vo1p7s4aa04j30t66un877nj5mtc3ao@xxxxxxxxxx

> The ability of microwave energy to heat food was discovered
> accidentally. An engineer working with microwaves noticed that his
> chocolate bar melted once when he left it near the source of the
> microwave radiation.

Yeah, it was in Spencer's pocket when it melted near the new "magnetron"
vacuum tube he was investigating after WWII. He _had_ to have had some extra
heat in his flesh as well.

<no ***>
The electromagnetic absorption spectrum of water and many other common
materials was still incompletely known at that time due to the infancy of
sophisticated electronics, but it took his curiousity and experimental
talent to think of possibly using it to cook food.

Because of their atomic bond structure, bond length and what's called a
"dipole moment" (several of them actually, a.k.a. "degrees of freedom"),
water molecules absorb radiation at several different frequencies, including
some microwave and infrared (greenhouse gas, anyone?) frequencies, to name a
few. That absorbed energy manifests itself as kinetic energy (motion about
any and all those different degrees of freedom) of the molecules, something
we call "heat."
</no ***>

> We have two microwaves. I use them all the time.

<***, until further notice>
You should turn 'em off occasionally, otherwise them microwaves get caught
in yer hair and the draperies.

> We also reheat food all the time in it.

Never mind, must be some 10-watters if they have to run constantly just to
keep the food warm.

> With the cost of an all stainless steel 1000 watt microwave over under
> $100 at Sam's Club they pretty much become an inexpensive necessity in
> the kitchen.

Some people just get 'em free off the loading dock when no one's looking.
Don't do it, Greg.

.

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