Why are mashed potatoes immune to microwaves? (1 Viewer)

[Joe Szott]

I used to by a physics nut in college and we did some microwaving experiments for fun (don't ask and no animals died :0) So a quick synopsis and a wicked story:

Microwaves heat up water by exciting some of the atoms in objects, most especially water (oxygen really). The microwaves don't provide quite enough energy for the H2O to break it's bonds though, so the oxygen molecules 'bang around' within the H20 bonds and this 'banging' results in heat discharge. This heat transfers to nearby stuff and the food heats up. Actually, based on their heat water is about the only thing a household microwave can really heat up quickly. So for the potato, there is less water and a lot more stuff that needs heat, so it cooks slower. If you really want to test this out, take a dry, non-porous rock from your garden and heat it up in the microwave for 10 mins. It will barely even be warm, whereas a container of equal weight water would be boiling like a mad fiend. So sprinkle water on anything you want to nuke if it is dense or dry

Now the fun part. Back in college again we were discussing microwaves and came across a nice little article about this relay station in the middle of winter. A security guard noticed that when he stood in a certain spot in the restricted area it was warmer than other places in this concrete facility, and he told other folks about it. So he dragged his chair over with a six pack (coke? beer?) one night and settled in between shifts. When the morning shift investigated the horrible smell they found his chair placed directly under the main dish that pulled in all the microwaves from about two dozen satellites. He had been cooked from the inside out by the microwaves and both he and the six pack had exploded during the night. That's why it was so warm in that one spot, it was a focal point for all the microwaves. Shazzbot!

 

[RobertR]

Back in college again we were discussing microwaves and came across a nice little article about this relay station in the middle of winter.

That story has "urban legend" written alllll over it.

Edit: It is!

http://www.snopes.com/horrors/techno/cooked.htm

 

[Joe Szott]

Beat me to the punch! Just found it on snopes as well (gotta love google, eh?)

I'm sure we pulled that off of the Darwin Awards that it was attached to.

 

[Philip_G]

when I make potatoes I use cream cheese and sour cream, so when they get microwaved the sour cream gets all runny and they aren't very good :frowning:

 

[Scooter]

I reheat them all the time in the nuker. I stir them up first...water tends to seperate from the bulk...then put a lump of butter in the middle and cover the bowl.

As was suggested before...nuke'em seperate from the rest of the meal.

 

[Kirk Gunn]

Wasn't the person that discovered "Microwaves can be used for cooking",a technician that noticed a candy bar melted in his pocket as he was working on a Microwave transmitter ?

Not sure if he's still with us.....

 

[Philip_G]

I thought it was someone that was working on a radar sstem of some sort and noted popcorn starting popping? not sure, but it was something like that

 

[Eric Kahn]

they just had somthing about hte Microwave oven on the discovery channel
was an engineer at raytheon who noticed that his candy bar melted when he was by a radar tube

 

[Joe Szott]

I wouldn't be surprised, it's like when you see that sign that says "Danger, Don't Touch This!" and you know at least one person touched it for them to need a sign

Reminds me of one a professor related, I'm pretty sure this one was real. He was working on radar back in WWII (and other stuff I'm sure.) It was way out in the middle of nowhere and the lab was basically just the facilities and a big old power plant right next door. He said they didn't know much about E-M radiation and the like back then, so there were no precautions taken when radio waves, microwaves, xrays, or whatever were used. They used flouresent lights in the ceilings and when one would go out, you would put on your googles and go to the storeroom. When you open that door, all the lights sitting on the shelves were lit up. Because of the closeness of the power plant and the amount of constant E-M in the air, the phosphor (sp?) was always excited and the bulbs just lit up wherever they were in the facility.

You can actually test this too (I've seen it done.) If you can find some high voltage wires close enough to the ground, walk under em with a flourescent tube light. It will start to glow from the E-M off the wires.