Ok, it's a fact that microwave heat up food by making water molecules orientate themselves to the electric field of the microwave radiation and produce friction between the water molecules (generating heat energy).\n\nIf the microwave radiation is just there to change the orientation of the water molecule, were does all the microwave radiation generated go? Is it absorbed by the water molecules in order to change their orientation and produce heat?
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The microwave contains a Faraday cage, part of which is made up of the wire mesh you can see within the glass door. \n\nFaraday cages are essentially a hollow conductor. Any microwaves which are not absorbed by the food will be absorbed by the Faraday cage and result in a current flowing through the cage. This prevents the microwaves from leaving the oven, and protects the microwave user from being cooked along with the food.
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Microwaves do emit radiation, but, true to their name, the radiation is in the form of micro-waves.  These waves lack the power to penetrate skin.  \n\nThe heat is of a worse danger, as testicles require a temperature lowere than that of the rest of the body, but I doubt that that is a concern so long as the door is closed and you yourself are not directly within the source of heat.  \n\nEven with that concern, men produce so much sperm each day that it is unlikely that you would be rendered infertile.\n\nI do believe that your reproductive future is safe.
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they were added much much later (almost 40 years after the introduction of the microwave oven).\n\nearly microwave ovens often had hot spots and cool spots so people often had to stop the microwave and reposition the food.\nSeveral years later (mid 80's) you were able to buy wind up turntables that you could add to your microwave. Then finally companies started to  add the turntable to the microwaves(early 90's).\n\nThis also changed the way microwaves were made, the early ones shot the micorwaves into the oven with out any pattern to the microwaves. It was hoped that random scattering would not create too much of a difference between hot and cold spots.\nHowever the new ones with a turntable emit the microwaves in a flat beam, over the turntable, so that the turning of the food will prevent hot spots.\n\nAlso note that newer microwaves are much much smaller than the original oven. The originals were designed to replace the conventional convection ovens. However over time people tended to use microwaves more for re heating or heating small things like tv dinners. And no one cooks turkeys or roasts in the microwave because the food does not look as appetizing. Thus the size of the ovens has been steadily decreasing over the years, to the small compact size you see now.\n\non a side note, the early microwave ovens were called Radaranges
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A microwave excites water thermally and unevenly at that.  A modern microwave in good repair poses no risk to you regarding microwave radiation.  The Faraday's cage (a metal net surrounding the microwave) protects you completely from radiation.\n\nIt is true, though, that water can be heated to an unusual gas-liquid stage if only a small amount of water is heated for half-an-hour or more, which is very unstable when released to an open atmosphere.  Hot water can explode when sufficient supercritical water (much above the temperature for evaporating) meets a quick change in water vapor pressure (lots of steam leaves the surface of the supercitical water).\n\nIn conclusion, under normal circumstances there is no risk to your health whatsoever.  If you microwave materials to really, really, really high temperatures, it is reasonable to expect trouble.  If you open the microwave door and notice an incredible amount of steam escaping, close the door most of the way and leave the area completely.\n\nThe mostly closed door with facilitate or slower and thus more stable transition to room conditions.  Always exercise caution with scalding hot materials, but the microwave has a way of heating things past the temperature that you are planning or expecting.  As the heat dissipates, so does the hazard, no different than with any other machine.
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the heat has been conducted by the metal spoon. the thermal heat energy from the water causes the molecules of the metal to vibrate.  These bump into neighbouring molecules, making them vibrate also until the unsubmerged handle is hot. - conduction
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Okay maybe I shouldn't be answering this question. For one I've never even heard or read about that. However I do know from first hand experience...that a cell phone will cause a microwave to arc. I was cooking something, and a cell phone was about six inches from the microwave. As soon as I started the microwave it arced. Moved the cell phone, and the microwave worked just fine. Cell phones are a strange thing.
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Heat leaves a bottle either through Convection, Radiation or Conduction.\n\nWith the vacume, you eliminate Convection and Conduction, because there is no air for the convection and the inner suface is in contact with the outer surface, and therefore no Conduction. The Silver Bottle reflects that radiation and preserves the heat even more efficiently.\n\nI hope you understood and thanks for making me revise my science class information.
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Yes, you can boil water in the microwave.  If you boil water in the microwave you won't see it bubble. So, it may be at boiling temperature but will not produce the bubbles associated with boiling on a stove.  This can actually cause the water to become superheated (above 212 F) because it is not bubbling.  If superheated water is removed from a microwave, it can spontaneously begin to boil out of the container, which can result in severe burns to the hands and face. The addition of a wooden stick (or similar object) helps to keep enough bubbles forming to prevent the water from becoming superheated.\n\nPart of the Contents courtesy of eHow, http://www.ehow.com/how_2297_boil-water-microwave.html
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Health problems usually associated with electromagnetic radiation (such as cancer) are caused by waves of much higher frequency.  In fact, the light from an ordinary 100-watt light bulb or the heats from a campfire (the heat only not including the smoke) have greater potential to cause cancer.  The only health problem that a microwave could cause is burns, but unless you really do break the glass on your microwave, you should be fine, just be careful about burning yourself on hot dishes and plates.
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Microwaves and ocean waves share one common characteristic:\nIt is the transfer of energy through a medium.  The waves have a variable intensity.  For a microwave it is electromagnetic energy traveling at the speed of light with a frequency in the giga-hertz range.  For an ocean wave is the transfer of mechanical energy at a frequency of 1 per 30 seconds or so.  The height of the wave is proportional to the amount of energy and the depth of the water.\n\nIn the case of communications, the microwave energy is modulated to transmit information according to the modulation protocol and frequency.\n\nI hope that helps.\n\nBy the way, microwave energy is used in microwave ovens because the frequency of the microwave causes the water molecules in the food to react and heat.  This is because the water molecule is a bipolar molecule with a resonanat frequency that gets matched up to the microwave and thus converts the electromagnetic energy into kinetic energy, which gets converted to heat.\n\nj
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A reverse microwave that makes things cold extra quick. Like a fast version of a freezer, if that makes sense? :-/
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Sending information through water molecules....\nWell, I suppose you could send an electric current as a signal through the water (providing some type of electrolyte is present), this could be a way of sending information.\nWater molecules are constantly moving/sloshing around, getting mixed up.  If you try to arrange the molecules a certain way in order to send information, they wont stay like that long.
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Look, energy is conserved, period.  It may be in the form of PE, KE, heat, etc., but it is always conserved.  My best guess is that whatever experimentalists you're thinking of probably neglected to consider heat effects of some other energy drain/source.\n\nBy the way, I think you now hold the record for the worst spelling and punctuation ever on Yahoo! Answers.
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First of all, depending on the current state of the economy when it relates to enegery, different types of energy can be more cost effective.  But that can change from year to year.  One year it could be gas that's cheapest, the next electricity, and the opposite true for some state up north.  \n\nAs far as meal preperation and the quality of the meal is concerned, there is one majorly huge drawback to using microwave heat as opposed to anything else.  microwaves heat mostly the water in an item and nothing else.  this causes the moisture to seperate it's more solid bond from the particles of food and gather all in one place.  you would think it would rise to the top but it varies depending on the type of dish.  either way what u can sometimes get is soggy food.  on the other hand, sometimes the food ends up being too dry because all of the water leaves it when it's heated to steam.  but when you use a stove or a toaster or a toaster oven, you're using regular old heat to cook something, and heat doesn;t discriminate as much as microwave energy.  it cooks solids and liquids pretty much the same.  micorwaves are great for frozen items because the water is typically ice.  but it will never taste as good as another source of heat.  as far as any differrence between a toaster and an over and a toaster oven?  it's all about the size and shape of the food you are cooking.  toaster overns don;t take as long to heat but don;t heat very large items whereas toasters heat even more quickly but only work on thin slices of bread.  gas heat and electric heat work about the same way.  it's all based on the temprature of the air.
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Wow! That's quite a question!\nOkay -- let's assume we're dealing with an electric stove. The elements on the stove heat up and are in direct contact with the cooking utensil. That's conduction. Microwave ovens work by agitating the tiny little particles in the food, and this is what generates the heat and cooks the food. \nThe toaster works by radiation -- the element heats up and radiates heat, which then cooks the surface of the bun, bagel, bread or whatever. \nIt's difficult to measure the environmental impact of modern appliances against those of previous generations. For example, where does the electricity come from? Is it generated by hydro power, or by a fossil-fuel powered generator? Availability? Previous generations used a lot of wood. It was cheap, you could usually cut your own, and was readily available. But it generated a lot of smoke. Coal was even worse. Solar powered appliances (and there are a few around, such as water heaters and solar cookers) are probably the most environmentally kind, but they are expensive and, obviously depend on a constant supply of solar energy, sso that limits their general effectiveness. \nHope this gives you a few avenues to explore.
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An oven cooks by heating the air and then a combination of conduction and convection conveying this heat to the food.\n\nA microwave does not work in this way. It exposes the food with much longer wavelength radiation tuned to directly excite vibrational modes of water molecules. This means that the microwaves only heat things that contain water.
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Yes, it drives my hubby nutz that If I want to make a corn dog..I will wait 45 mintues to make it in the oven than in the microwave.\n\nI hate microwaves! Everything comes out too soggy or tough