🚀 go-pugleaf

With respect to the effects of microwaves on water, there's a lot of
largely irrelevant information being exchanged here.  Whatever the
molecular characteristics of water, experience shows that bulk materials
are a whole different ballgame.  The chosen frequencies for the various
grades of microwave oven are compromises involving cost of generator -vs-
effectiveness of absorption -vs- ability to penetrate the material being
heated, with the last two being a tradeoff.

The information used to decide the frequencies was most likely
empirical.

As an example of the unexpected properties of water in bulk, consider
the following: take a laser that emits a short pulse of green
visible light of about 1 MW power (i.e. a few joules in a couple
microseconds).  Direct the beam into a cell containing pure water.

The result: not what you'd expect.  Water doesn't absorb green light
much, right.  Well the result is a flash of white light.  It all
involves non-linear refractive indices, inverse Raman scattering and
other properties that are damn hard to predict from molecular data (which
doesn't stop physical chemists from trying!).  The effect is a great
help to chemists who want a ready source of pulsed white light for
getting spectra from fast reactions.


-- 
||Dave Jones (dj@ekcolor.ssd.kodak.com)    ||-------------------------------|
||Eastman Kodak Co. Rochester, NY 14653-7300|-------------------------------|
|| If Unix is a computer system            ||-------------------------------|
|| then a pile of bricks is a house        ||-------------------------------|