Certain substances — particularly water, fats, and other organic polymers — happen to be very good at absorbing microwave radiation. Water molecules do this by acting like tiny magnets each molecule has a slight negative charge on its oxygen atom and positive charge on its hydrogen atoms. As the microwave beams zip back and forth in the oven, they attract the water molecules, tugging them and forcing them to vibrate very quickly. This vibration gets turned into heat, warming up your meal.
But what about metals? Well, at a microscopic level most metals are lattice arrangements of atoms with a bunch of electrons freely floating around between them. The microwave radiation will attract all these electrons as it bounces around inside your microwave oven, pulling them back and forth, and this generates heat inside the metal.
A large sheet of very thin metal, like a big piece of aluminum foil, can in fact heat up extremely rapidly, becoming so hot that it could start to burn the microwave. But the real danger comes from having metal with kinks or dead ends in it.
This can create concentrated spots of negative charge. Electrons will naturally be repelled from areas where there is too much charge. If these negative spots happen to find themselves in a place where they are near air, like in the tines of a fork or a kink in crumpled aluminum foil, the electrons will jump away, creating a spark and ionizing the air molecules into a plasma.
Particularly awesome high-school physics teachers will demonstrate this effect to a classroom by placing a CD in the microwave and watching the sparks fly. Thick metal heats up slowly.
The metal lining of a Hot Pocket sleeve is also smooth enough to prevent sparking, instead heating up and generating infrared radiation that crisps up the outside of the food. The next best thing you can do is to reheat your food in microwave safe containers. To know if your container is microwave safe, you can check this article to learn how to tell. Most containers you would have in a college dorm is microwave safe. The basic guideline to follow is to not put metal in the microwave, ever.
There should never be sparks flying between you and your microwave no matter how amazing of a relationship you have with it. Now go out and practice preaching this science to anyone else who tends to forget to take their spoon out of their oatmeal. Coffee Tea Perfect for when you're Too Sober See All Drinks. Dining Hall Dorm Lyfe Perfect for when you're It all comes down to the parts of the microwave and how they work.
There is this nifty gadget in your microwave called a "magnetron" that releases electrons that bounce around in your microwave that cause the cavities built inside your microwave to release waves at a certain frequency.
These waves are the microwaves that reheat your food. Your food absorbs the waves which causes the water molecules in the food to bounce causing the food to heat up. That kids, is the short version of how microwaves work. When you put metal in the microwave, the metal has so many electrons that will get pulled by the microwaves which causes a thin sheet of metal to heat up so quickly that it could burn the appliance.
Metal with kinks in it are an even bigger risk. When the piece of metal is crunched up, it can create areas of concentration of these rowdy electrons.
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