Recently my wife expressed concerns that our microwave is unsafe and I’m too ignorant to know why she is wrong. Please explain why microwaves are safe to use.
In: Technology
The microwaves and the high voltages used to generate them cannot escape the box. They cannot go through metal, and the window is a fine metal grid with holes too small for them.
Microwaves only heat the food. They do not damage it in the way that gamma radiation does. It can do nothing heating food cannot do.
Microwaves aren’t safe for you. Luckily, microwaves aren’t used on you.
Microwaves are used on the food you’re heating, vibrating it quickly and so heating it up, and once you stop the microwave oven, there are no more microwaves – just the heat.
Because there is not radiation in the nuclear sense even though we say “nuke it” when microwaving food.
At the simplest, this is using magnetism to create friction. Try showing her how static electricity can move water. Turn on the faucet on the lowest strength, so it’s a steady trickle. Run a comb through your hair, then move the comb near the water, the stream bends. Microwave is basically doing this fast enough to create heat, like rubbing your hands together.
Microwaves arent safe for her because of her tinfoil hat. For everyone else, they are fine.
The metal sides of the inside contain the rays. The metal mesh screen in the door is designed so that the rays stay inside, while letting g light through.
Also, ask her what tiktokker told her that microwave ovens are unsafe.
Did she clarify what safety she is worried about in particular?
Microwave ovens heat up food by blasting them with a type of energy called, you guessed it, microwaves! Microwaves are in the same category as X-rays, gamma rays, ultraviolet light, visible light, and radio waves – these are all forms of “electromagnetic radiation” with different energy levels.
Those are some scary words, and some types of this radiation are indeed quite dangerous. However, microwaves fall on the part of the spectrum close to radio waves, which means they have very low energy – even less energy than the visible light you and I see everywhere! The low-energy end of this spectrum is called “non-ionizing radiation”, because it doesn’t have enough energy to actually break apart molecules and turn them radioactive. It’s not terribly different from shining a flashlight in your food, except that it’s better at transferring heat.
So microwaves themselves aren’t particularly dangerous and comparable to radio waves or visible light that is all around us. Even so, all microwave ovens sold in the US are subject to strict regulations to ensure that the microwaves they emit do not escape the oven. That’s part of what those dots on the door are for.
If she’s worried about shoddy craftsmanship causing it to explode, my best advice is to get a new one from a reputable brand.
The greatest danger of microwaves (as long as they are used correctly) is just the heat they produce. Boiling water is not good for anybody’s skin!
If you were to somehow lose the front panel of a microwave and still turn it on, now the greatest danger of the microwave… is still the heat it produces. Getting your skin hit with a microwave can burn your skin, effectively boiling the parts that it hits. Which is still not good for anybody’s skin! But even then, it takes a bit of time and isn’t an instant scalding (if it was that strong, things would heat up in them faster).
Fortunately, microwaves (the things, not the appliance) are physically incapable of going through the walls and door of a microwave (the appliance, not the things). So a properly put together one is completely safe (barring the amount of heat it can put into food).
*note: microwaves (the appliance) deal with *large* amounts of electricity, so if yours is falling apart then the electrical cables can be dangerous. Do not take them apart unless you are professionally trained and take the proper safety precautions.
microwaves are like wizards that heat food with magic waves. they can’t escape the box so you’re safe. plus those waves just make the water in your food dance around. science is cool like that
Look up faraday cages. This is basically what your microwave is. It’s purpose built to contain electromagnetic radiation, like that of a microwave.
Explain how microwave ovens work.
They use radiowaves to vibrate the bonds of H2O molecules. If she wants to understand that deeper, then think of it kinda like a tuning fork, when struck they vibrate, but a tuning fork will also vibrate if it is near a sounds that resonates with it. Thats what is happening to the water, and vibrations cause heat.
Those holes on the microwave door are the right size so that microwaves cant fit through them, if she is scared of getting radiation, it is advisable to turn on and then move a few feet away, even if the microwaves leak out a bit, they wont go very far.
The food wont change besides being cooked. Are raw green beans better than steamed green beans for you? It may change the nutrition components slightly, but not in a bad way for your health.
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