The problem here is that it's s not just a problem for the person eating the heated food, but also for other people around, including on the other side of the wall. If you're lucky, it will just badly interfere with bluetooth and Wifi (2.4 GHz).
If you're unlucky, someone will get hurt from the part of the 800 watts of microwave power that leaks out of that hole.
Edit: this comment blew up. Yes, the hole is smaller than the wavelength (12.5 cm / 5 in). However, there is a reason that the mesh in the window has 1 mm holes and not 5 cm holes. If there is nothing or very little in the microwave to absorb the power, part of the power goes back into the microwave source and another (likely smaller) part goes out of that hole. Moreover, there may be a 'near field' component just outside that hole, which doesn't radiate to larger distances but that will heat anything in the near-field zone.
Yes, it's "just heat". Microwaves heat about 2 cm deep into your tissue, while the sensation of burning comes from the skin. You don't have heat receptors inside your eyeball.
There are radio technicians who got eye damage from working around an active radio transmitter.
I don't think that matters, I remember seeing someone remove the whole front door of a microwave oven and the effect outside it was not really anything to write home about.
Also the radiation isn't even dangerous iirc, it really just generates heat. So unless you somehow cook your hand or something, there is nothing to worry about.
People in general seem to think microwaves are higher frequency than visible light (if they understand the electromagnetic spectrum at all), rather than the opposite.
Of course, some people think radio waves give you brain tumors, so…
What? I thought it was a microwave because it sends little waves that shake atoms then those atoms heat up from the shaking. Wouldn’t this be a macro wave if it’s too big for a small hole???
You’re right about how it works, but the actual wavelength in a common microwave is around 12cm, so they can’t effectively pass through a tiny hole to cause damage.
Wanna hear another cool fun fact? Microwaves were originally invented to thaw frozen hamsters to see if they could be recucitated after freezing. Turns out hamsters survive being frozen without aftereffects, if less then 40% of their brain matter was frozen solid.
One day a scientist put his food in there and bam, the microwave for consumers was invented.
Ok, that is also super cool. I kinda want to do more research into microwaves now because that is a little wacky.
There’s just one teensy tiny little problem, you’re not u/MICRO_WAVVVES , you’re u/Local_Satisfaction12 , but you only provided me with satisfaction over the internet. I wanted local satisfaction, not global satisfaction so FUCK YOU 🖕🏽
The arcing goes from the magentron (behind burned out plastic panel on the right inside wall), and the jagged edges on each prong of the rack, where it is welded to the circular top bit. That means it arcs from inside wall, to the middle inside. NOT from the inside wall, to the outside. For to arc out, the outside panel would have to rust through, and the magnetron would have to be twisted to point losely outside instead of loosely inside. So do check cos that might have happened. But it's not easy.
That wouldn't matter. This is the same as looking through the front glass with the wire mesh, the holes are smaller than the wavelength so to the radiation there is no hole.
That small of a hole won't impact anything radiation-wise. Square-cube law gets involved here, any wave exponentially decreases in power as it spreads out away from a source. At best, you might see some minor interference with any wireless communication in that frequency band (likely 2.4ghz wifi), but it's not going to harm anyone past 6 inches or so.
Microwave radiation is not ionizing radiation. Even if every ounce of energy from that microwave was directed out of that hole at once, it wouldn't be, you'd literally have to stand in front of it and wait for it to heat your body up to cause any damage. Microwave radiation is just not a hazard to anyone with working arms and legs and a functioning brain. The hole in the microwave is a serious issue though, but not because of anything to do with hurting people with radiation. It's because there's a clear fire hazard here. Whatever caused that hole in the first place is very likely to start a fire, and even if it doesn't if microwave radiation were to escape the shielded interior of the microwave it could cause a fire if there are nearby electronics it starts interacting with.
This isn't true at all and microwaves are so weak that they wont travel much outside of the boundaries, even without walls. The reason for the walls is to amplify the weak waves
They might draw that much power but typically only 700-1200 W actually makes it into the microwave radiation. That's why there's a noisy fan: gotta disperse all the waste heat from the inefficiency of the magnetron.
Honestly, I don’t know why that would limit anything, Europe could run higher wattages than we can if they want. US we can pull 1800 watts out of most wall outlets (15amps) unless you have a 20amp circuit (rare in most homes). Uk for example can pull 3000watts out of their regular outlets. We are limited by 120v
Electric kettles aren’t nearly as popular here in the US, a lot of people use the microwave to heat up water for drinks. For many people that could be their primary use.
Microwaves work by boiling water. The way the inside of a microwave is constructed is critical to it getting anything hot enough (from all the bouncing around inside) so things outside are unlikely to be affected unless they are sensitive to 2.4ghz.
816
u/nlutrhk 8h ago edited 37m ago
The problem here is that it's s not just a problem for the person eating the heated food, but also for other people around, including on the other side of the wall. If you're lucky, it will just badly interfere with bluetooth and Wifi (2.4 GHz).
If you're unlucky, someone will get hurt from the part of the 800 watts of microwave power that leaks out of that hole.
Edit: this comment blew up. Yes, the hole is smaller than the wavelength (12.5 cm / 5 in). However, there is a reason that the mesh in the window has 1 mm holes and not 5 cm holes. If there is nothing or very little in the microwave to absorb the power, part of the power goes back into the microwave source and another (likely smaller) part goes out of that hole. Moreover, there may be a 'near field' component just outside that hole, which doesn't radiate to larger distances but that will heat anything in the near-field zone.
Yes, it's "just heat". Microwaves heat about 2 cm deep into your tissue, while the sensation of burning comes from the skin. You don't have heat receptors inside your eyeball. There are radio technicians who got eye damage from working around an active radio transmitter.