Talk:Microwave oven

TROLL Science: Mobile phone battery charging

Possibly a new fad to dupe ignorant people. Placing a flat battery (of any sort, but typically mobilephone Lithium Polymer types) does not charge the battery when the oven is operating.. It may produce an explosion and may cuase damage to the device or personal injury. Placing an electrical/electronic device in the microwave containing a discharged (flat) battery of any sort does not recharge the battey within the unit. Not only is it utterly stupid, but will destroy the internal electronics of the device. Source: www.4chan.org/b/ (expired thread), www.omeagle.com (various chatrooms being trolled) --unsigned by 115.70.80.179 at 13:54, 1 June 2013

Efficiency

the article says efficiency as low as 50%. I measured my microwave and found 40% i.e. it consumes 1500W for the 600W programme Metroplint (talk) 09:58, 2 April 2024 (UTC)

Microwave heating is less efficient on fats and sugars than on water because they have a smaller molecular dipole moment

The article says: Microwave heating is less efficient on fats and sugars than on water because they have a smaller molecular dipole moment, which is true. But those also have a lower heat capacity, so heat up faster. For foods with both water and fats, the fats get hot faster. In addition, they can get hotter than boiling water. Gah4 (talk) 21:51, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

Vibrate?

The opening paragraph says the microwave oven causes polar molecules to "vibrate", with a cited source, but then further contradicts itself in the Principles section, stating it causes the molecules to rotate. The latter is clearly correct, with microwaves causing rotational excitation in polar molecules. For a vibrational excitation to occur, you would need IR waves, not microwaves, which naturally the microwave oven (it's in the name) does *not* emit. I think all references to "vibration" should be fixed. The source is wrong. Orisgeinkras (talk) 01:12, 1 September 2024 (UTC)

Microwaves heat by causing Molecular vibration. The initial excitation of the water molecules may be rotational, but ultimately the food gets hot because the molecules are vibrating. Saying "...this induces polar molecules in the food to rotate..." is going to be misleading to the average reader since the usual meaning of "rotate" is to repeatedly spin 360 degrees in the same direction, which is not what's happening.

At least in the lede we should keep it simple and follow what is in the cited sources say. The subject can (and is) treated in more detail later in the article. Mr. Swordfish (talk) 14:34, 1 September 2024 (UTC)

References

Contrary to popular assumptions, metal objects can be safely used

The subsection on metal has a lot of back and worth where different editors were clearly responding to each other. I recommend breaking it out into its own section and add some further sub headings, something like "safe uses of metal: tinfoil" "unsafe uses of tinfoil: ..." Permareperterra (talk) 07:25, 13 November 2024 (UTC)