🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1993Jan26.125656.29958@doug.cae.wisc.edu> kolstad@cae.wisc.edu 
(Joel Kolstad) writes:
>Microwaves are tuned to heat up water most effectively, so things with
>little water in them (i.e., non-microwave popcorn) don't cook well.

I agree with almost everything said but this.  Microwave ovens are NOT
specifically tuned to any resonant absorption frequency of water.  Water
happens to be a good absorber over a broad range of frequencies.  The choice
of 2.45 GHz (in the US) for the operating frequency of home microwave ovens is
more an economic one and one dictated by international agreements.  915 MHz
is often used industrially in the US, and a myriad of other frequencies are
used in foreign countries.

This is a common misconception, and one that even tends to be propagated by
physics professors who should know better.  Water absorbs considerable
energy at frequencies used in microwave ovens, but so do many other materials.

For those who want further references, the best I can suggest is "Microwave
Spectroscopy" by Charles Townes and Arthur Schawlow. [Remember that before
the laser came the maser which was an offshoot of Townes work with microwave
spectroscopy!]

Let's kill the myth that microwaves heat only water and that the frequency is
a special one that resonates with water molecules.
					Barry
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|  ___  ________  |    Dr. Barry L. Ornitz          WA4VZQ
| |  / /        | |    Eastman Chemical Company
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