Microwave heating

Updated June 4, 2006

Click here to go to our page on the bilogical effects of electromagnetic radiation

New for September 2005! On this page we will start dealing with some of the topics of microwave heating. Don't look for any microwave cooking recipes, we all we know is that "bagel bites" taste better when you cook them in a "real" oven!

Heating is the microwave application that most people are familiar with. For less than $50 Walmart will sell you a cheap microwave oven made in China that will heat up yesterday's chili from the inside out, using a magnetron, some waveguide and an antenna, operating at around 2.4 GHz.

Besides cooking, microwave heating has many industrial (drying paint or wood products), and medical (cell destruction, sometimes used to treat cancer or other illnesses.) There was recent inventor that wanted to develop a waterless toilet that used microwaves to reduce waste to ashes (click here and scroll down a bit to learn more). You can even use microwave energy to kill bugs that are infested in cereal grains.

Did you ever need to dispose of a CD full of data, perhaps proprietary or classified? Try putting it into the microwave oven for five seconds, then watch the fireworks! Here's a paper that attempts to determine the physics behind the mysterious crop circle patterns that emerge. Some people have too much time on their hands...

What is new in microwave heating?

Directed energy weapons (DEW)

The use of high power microwaves as a weapon is limited only by the imagination. USA Today discusses some of the potential uses, including the "pain ray" and another scheme to melt the guidance systems of missiles aimed at aircraft while they are taking off or landing.

Variable frequency microwave (VFM)

Did you ever wonder why doesn't someone invent a microwave oven that doesn't need a stupid turntable to prevent hot spots in your potatoes? Well, it has been done, and it is called variable frequency microwave (VFM). Here the microwave energy is frequency hopped every 5 microseconds or so, to that the pattern of energy distribution is randomized. Don't look for this technology under the Christmas tree yet, it is expensive and therefore relegated to industrial applications such thermal processing of semiconductor wafers.

Hey Jeff, how about sponsoring a page on this topic?

Microwave drill

Here's some info on a "microwave drill" that works by heating the crap out of anything you want to put a hole in (except metal):

http://www.trnmag.com/Stories/2002/103002/Microwave_drill_melts_concrete_103002.html