Where Do Microwaves Go?

[plowter]

Where do the microwaves go when you open the door of the microwave oven?

[meglet]

Having just read your "is there any offical guidance for when you meet an alian" thread, can I just say that I really like your questions plowter!

[plowter]

... but you want to know these answers too, don'tcha?

As Professor Johnny Nash once said:

There are more questions than answers
Pictures in my mind that will not show
There are more questions than answers
And the more I find out the less I know

[fo3nix]

They get absorbed by the food in there.

Even if you open the door without switching the unit off, the microwaves travel so fast that by the time you've opened the door enough to leave a small gap, they've already bounced back and hit the food.

[heathfield]

Since opening the door switches the microwave off, the microwaves then go to the same place as light waves do when you switch a light off.

[anotheoldgit]

Or the same place electricity goes to when you pull the plug out.

[plowter]

anotheoldgit, surely there's a difference between electricity and microwaves? Electricity is caused by electrons moving from a source through a device and back to the source. So when you break the circuiut the flow stops.

Microwaves are waves of magnetic radiation (radio waves). When you switch off the source, there will still be some of the waves bouncing around within the oven. So when you open the door they escape.

Wasn't there a warning (or an urban myth) about cheap microwaves with poor seals that let microwaves escape resulting in male infertility?

[sp1214]

My microwave after switch off gives 5 beeps before you are told to open the door. I assume if this advice is not taken you will get zapped.

[fo3nix]

No, they'll get absorbed into the food almost instantly. Far faster than you can open the door, anyway.

[plowter]

So what if you switched on an empty microwave with no food inside? The microwaves would be reflected off the metal inside, bounce about and not be absorbed. So what would happen if you then opened the door?

[fo3nix]

I'm not sure without looking into it. But I suspect the microwave case would absorb the microwaves.

In any event, it doesn't really matter. They only give the effect they do in microwave ovens because they're concentrated, with a standing wave pattern being set up.

Once released they'll rapidly disperse, and even if lots of them went straight towards your head, it would do absolutely nothing at all.

[anotheoldgit]

I am sorry my answer was supposed to be more humorous rather than scientific.

Sorry once again that you did not spot this.

[plowter]

Sorry, anotheoldgit, I thought you were being serious. Everybody know that electricity just goes back into the walls. Houses wouldn't need walls if it we didn't have to keep the electricity in there.

You know where you are with electricity, apart from them little static b*ggers. Them microwaves, thought, they're the work of the Devil.