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Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.

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Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technologies? With

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Speaker 1: tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone,

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Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff. My name is Chris Poulette, and

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Speaker 1: I am the tech editor here at how stuff works

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Speaker 1: dot Com. And sitting across from me, as he always

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Speaker 1: does on these occasions, is senior writer Jonathan Strickland. And

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Speaker 1: we're coming to you alive, even though a blizzard of

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Speaker 1: epic proportions is going on directly outside the studio of

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Speaker 1: how stuff Works dot com, or at least it's snowing,

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Speaker 1: and in Atlanta, that's like the snow apocalypse. Yeah, so

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Speaker 1: um as, as the world breaks down outside and we

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Speaker 1: see the angry mobs set fire two cars and raided

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Speaker 1: all the grocery stores for all the milk and bread

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Speaker 1: that they have, eggs and eggs and toilet paper, we

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Speaker 1: will we will soldier on and bring you another fresh, hot,

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Speaker 1: tasty episode of tech Stuff. And in this case, the

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Speaker 1: episode comes to a courtesy of a little listener mail.

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Speaker 1: This listener mail comes from Timas and I hope I'm

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Speaker 1: saying that correctly. It could also be Timas or some

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Speaker 1: other pronunciation of which I'm unfamiliar, and it goes like this. Hi,

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Speaker 1: I'm Timas from Taiwan. I'm in eighth grade. I just

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Speaker 1: started listening to your podcast and I already love it.

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Speaker 1: I have a quick question for you. How do microwaves work?

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Speaker 1: Please answer it if you have time, preferably in a podcast. Thanks.

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Speaker 1: Keep up the awesome work. Ps. Please reply so I

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Speaker 1: can make sure I have the right email address. Well,

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Speaker 1: I did reply, so he knows he has alright email address. Uh,

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Speaker 1: we are going to talk about microwave ovens. We're assuming

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Speaker 1: that's what he means by microwaves, because microwaves themselves are

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Speaker 1: a form of electro magnetic radiation. Yes, they are a

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Speaker 1: particular kind that their wavelengths can measure from anywhere from

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Speaker 1: a few centimeters to about a foot long. Uh, that's

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Speaker 1: huge for radio waves. Visible light is actually in the

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Speaker 1: pnenometer scale four seven hundreds or nanometers. I did it

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Speaker 1: the way you like, specifically, so we wouldn't have to

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Speaker 1: do that, Yeah, which is which is why? Yes? Where Yeah?

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Speaker 1: So either either either either? Yeah? This is ah. This

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Speaker 1: is all thanks to a guy named Percy Spencer. Yes,

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Speaker 1: back in nine, which, Uh, it's kind of a funny story.

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Speaker 1: I actually saw an episode of I can't even remember

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Speaker 1: what it was. It's one of those those history of

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Speaker 1: mechanics shows, probably something, but anyway, it was talking about

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Speaker 1: different inventions, and the way he discovered microwaves could cook

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Speaker 1: was very very interesting. I mean, he was already working

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Speaker 1: with microwaves, but for radar purposes, because he was working

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Speaker 1: his candy ball. He didn't melt this candy bar. He

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Speaker 1: was working with a radar system, yes, which uses a

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Speaker 1: device called a magnetron. Yes. He was working on it

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Speaker 1: for the Raytheon Corporation, Yes, and still is involved with

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Speaker 1: a lot of defense stuff. Yes, exactly. Yeah. So during

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Speaker 1: his his experiments, I mean, the magnetrons have been in

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Speaker 1: use for for several years up to that point, he

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Speaker 1: just noticed that when he took it out of its

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Speaker 1: uh of its casing and it was working on it

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Speaker 1: with some other experiments. He knows one day that the

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Speaker 1: candy bar he had in his pocket had mysteriously melted,

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Speaker 1: and he thought, I wonder if this has anything to

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Speaker 1: do with this magnetron do hickey, Except he probably thought

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Speaker 1: of it in much more scientific terms. He then decided

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Speaker 1: to try and experiment. He placed some kernels of unpopped

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Speaker 1: popcorn next to it. He read that sucker up by

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Speaker 1: pulling the little chain, getting that diesel engine going. Um.

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Speaker 1: Actually that's not exactly how it worked. But he turned

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Speaker 1: it on and watched as the unpopped popcorn became popped

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Speaker 1: popcorn and said ah ha. And then of course he

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Speaker 1: did the next logical step. He put an egg next

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Speaker 1: to it and watched it explode. It's true, it's totally

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Speaker 1: I know it was. I know, it's totally true. That's

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Speaker 1: the funny thing is it's just amazing that he didn't

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Speaker 1: immediately like put a grape next to it, and then

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Speaker 1: maybe an incandescent BOWLB But I mean, all the things

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Speaker 1: that you see on YouTube of people putting stupid stuff

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Speaker 1: in the microwave, it's amazing he was the one that

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Speaker 1: was discovering that it was stupid. Perhaps perhaps he was

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Speaker 1: doing it and we just haven't don't have the record

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Speaker 1: of it. And then and then he did a compact disc.

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Speaker 1: He invented the compact disk. So no, he did not

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Speaker 1: invent the compact disc. No, no, no, But it is

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Speaker 1: kind of funny because you figure if the microwave. The

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Speaker 1: microwave emissions from the Magnatron were cooking the candy bar

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Speaker 1: and the popcorn and the egg. Probably wasn't doing him

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Speaker 1: very much good. But as I used to joke about that,

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Speaker 1: but as it turned out, he lived a very long life,

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Speaker 1: so well, apparently I didn't do him too much. He

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Speaker 1: would you would feel the effects pretty quickly, because I mean,

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Speaker 1: it does heat up tissue very It's it's not like

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Speaker 1: it just magically goes from from uncooked to cooked. But

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Speaker 1: we'll get into that. We'll talk about the actual sequence

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Speaker 1: that happens when microwaves encounter, um, anything that happens to

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Speaker 1: have some sort of moisture in it. Well, um Percy Spencer.

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Speaker 1: His discovery led Raytheon to release the world's first microwaveve

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Speaker 1: and in which incredibly compact. Right. Oh yeah, it was

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Speaker 1: the size of a refrigerator five and a half feet tall.

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Speaker 1: So yeah, the first microwave was just a little shorter

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Speaker 1: than my wife. But that sucker was a lot more

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Speaker 1: powerful than the ones that they have out now because

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Speaker 1: that it was it was essentially an industrial microwave machine.

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Speaker 1: It was you know, very very early on and very

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Speaker 1: very expensive cook an entire deer in just five seconds. Wow. Um, anyway,

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Speaker 1: they were they ran between two thousand and three thousand

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Speaker 1: dollars yea, and the very first one cost about five grand.

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Speaker 1: They're very very the very first one five thousand dollars,

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Speaker 1: which in ninety seven was about the same price as

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Speaker 1: you could get for Poland you are just on a

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Speaker 1: roll today anyway, it's snowing outside. It's a snow day,

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Speaker 1: right anyhow. Um, so you know, this was a little

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Speaker 1: bit out of the price range of the average American household, right,

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Speaker 1: So Raythoon licensed the technology to t Happen. Uh, and

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Speaker 1: in nineteen fifty five, T Happen introduced the first domestic

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Speaker 1: microwave oven, which was still out of the price range

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Speaker 1: of the average uh, you know household, um, but you know,

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Speaker 1: as considerably cheaper than those giant industrial models. Um. And

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Speaker 1: then uh, Raytheon inquired Amana, so there you go to

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Speaker 1: the Amanda radar range. The two names came together and uh,

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Speaker 1: you know it's in sixty seven, Raytheon did their first

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Speaker 1: domestic hundred volt microwave oven, which was under five and

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Speaker 1: of course now they're you know, approximately seven dollars if

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Speaker 1: you really wanted to. You could go out buy one

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Speaker 1: ruin it by putting one of the things you're not

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Speaker 1: supposed to put in it, and then watch go out

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Speaker 1: and buy another one, and you're really only out likes.

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Speaker 1: So not that you should put anything uh weird in

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Speaker 1: your microwave. You shouldn't. You really shouldn't. Don't do it.

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Speaker 1: You could end up burning down the apartment. Besides, it's

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Speaker 1: more fun to watch it on YouTube because then you

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Speaker 1: let somebody else ruin their microwave and you get to

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Speaker 1: keep yours right, and you also get to hear all

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Speaker 1: the hilarious comments that go on in the background. Oh

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Speaker 1: my god, and wow and this is stupid. Yeah, and

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Speaker 1: then you're thinking, and you videotaped it, and not only that,

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Speaker 1: but then went to the next step of uploading it

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Speaker 1: to the internet to share it with everyone. So microwaves cook.

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, let's get what they do using a They

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Speaker 1: have a hurts or two point five gigga hurts h frequency. Yes,

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Speaker 1: these are radio waves, remember so, um, let's that's specifically

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Speaker 1: the kind of electromagnetic radiation we're talking about in the

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Speaker 1: radio wave spectrum. And uh, they the thing waves of

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Speaker 1: this this frequency can be absorbed by water and fat

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Speaker 1: and sugar and some other stuff. Yeah, and uh, when

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Speaker 1: they do get absorbed by these materials, those materials begin

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Speaker 1: to generate a lot of atomic motion, which we also

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Speaker 1: can refer to as heat. So there you go. The

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Speaker 1: material absorbs these these waves, which then makes the material

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Speaker 1: heat up and that can cook a um, well, whatever

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Speaker 1: it is you put in there that happens to have water, bad,

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Speaker 1: sugar or whatever in it. But it also means that

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Speaker 1: certain other kinds of materials do not absorb these microwaves

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Speaker 1: as metal. Metal metal actually reflects it, which is which

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Speaker 1: is why you don't stick a fork or some aluminum

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Speaker 1: foil in your microwave oven, you know. But you know what, uh,

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Speaker 1: here's here's the thing is that if you do put

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Speaker 1: metal in your microwave, like regular metal, not not like

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Speaker 1: a foil, but something that has got more substance to it,

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Speaker 1: so like a pot or whatever or it can, it's

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Speaker 1: not necessarily gonna spark um Ith. The sparking comes from

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Speaker 1: things that if you were to have it too close

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Speaker 1: to one of the walls of the microwave, where the

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Speaker 1: differential between the metal that's in the whatever it is

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Speaker 1: that you put in there and the metal of the

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Speaker 1: wall that could possibly create a plasma that would end

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Speaker 1: up sparking. But in most cases, what's really gonna happen

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Speaker 1: is the metal is going to just reflect the microwaves

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Speaker 1: off of whatever it is you're trying to nuke, and

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Speaker 1: then you're not gonna have a hot dish. It's the

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Speaker 1: food itself is not gonna get is not gonna absorb

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Speaker 1: enough microwaves to heat up properly because the metal has

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Speaker 1: reflected it all. And you know, just to to let

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Speaker 1: you guys know, I mean, yeah, you're not supposed to

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Speaker 1: put metal in the microwave, but it's because it inhibits

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Speaker 1: the food from heating up rather than anything else. It's

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Speaker 1: just like the the screen that's on your microwave door.

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Speaker 1: You know, you look through a microwave and you see

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Speaker 1: that little grid. It's a mesh. It's that's made out

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Speaker 1: of metal. It's there. It's there to reflect microwaves back

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Speaker 1: into the oven so that they don't go shooting out

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Speaker 1: and nuking everything in your house. Yes, actually that's uh,

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Speaker 1: the mesh is actually uh. I'm glad you mentioned that

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Speaker 1: because I was interested in the mash because I had

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Speaker 1: heard some people talking about why it was mesh and

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Speaker 1: why it was there. You know, it's very important to

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Speaker 1: have that mesh on there. Um. But you may wonder

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Speaker 1: why it has little holes in it. Well, actually I

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Speaker 1: um um. Funnily enough, I was at how Everything Works

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Speaker 1: dot org, which being not really a competitor of ours

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Speaker 1: actually sort of. Uh. You may know Lou Bloomfield who

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Speaker 1: uh used to be on the Discovery Show. Um some

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Speaker 1: assembly required. Um. He he wrote a piece. He actually

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Speaker 1: answered several questions about microwaves and um. One of those

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Speaker 1: is why the holes are there in the mash. Now, um,

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Speaker 1: the holes you need the metal reflective surface on the

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Speaker 1: door to keep the microwaves inside the oven and from

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Speaker 1: you know, coming out of there and nuking your head.

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Speaker 1: Should you be checking on the condition of your dinner? Um? Well,

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Speaker 1: you know, and somebody's gonna bring up the fact that

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Speaker 1: we're using the word nuke when it's not actually nuclear,

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Speaker 1: but that it's it's colloquial. We're using nuke in the

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Speaker 1: colloquial to microwaves something. Yes, but you need that mesh

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Speaker 1: there for one to do that. But you also have

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Speaker 1: to see the condition of your food or whatever. It

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Speaker 1: is that you put in their coffee popcorn. Um, and uh,

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Speaker 1: the holes are in there and you would think, well,

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Speaker 1: maybe those are gonna let the microwaves out well as uh,

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Speaker 1: as Luke Bloomfield explains, the microwaves are actually at a

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Speaker 1: have a larger wavelength than the holes in the mash,

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Speaker 1: so you can see in, but they can't come back out,

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Speaker 1: which is really cool that it's and they're actually they can, uh,

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Speaker 1: the wavelengths being you know, few centimeters to even feet

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Speaker 1: in size. That's um, that's pretty cool. It's a lot

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Speaker 1: like the prison I drive by all the time. You

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Speaker 1: can see in, but they can't get out. Okay, So anyway,

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Speaker 1: moving on to talking more about how these microwaves heat

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Speaker 1: up material and cook them because microwaves are absorbed by

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Speaker 1: this whatever material you've put into the microwave itself. Um,

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Speaker 1: not necessarily because the foods that you put in there

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Speaker 1: to be to have them absorbed, right, Yes, yes, that's

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Speaker 1: what I mean. Specifically, I'm not talking about the plates

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Speaker 1: or whatever, because some of those don't. Yes, okay, So

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Speaker 1: the stuff you put in the microwave to actually heat up,

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Speaker 1: Mr Pellette, the stuff you nuke in the microwave. Okay,

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Speaker 1: anything that anything that has these materials that do absorb microwaves.

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Speaker 1: They do so uniformly right, well, assuming that there's not

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Speaker 1: too thick. If if the material is too thick, like

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Speaker 1: if you were to put an entire chicken breast, for example,

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Speaker 1: in there, and the chicken breast was a particularly meat

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Speaker 1: each can breast, that might not be the best idea

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Speaker 1: because you might not the microwaves might not be able

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Speaker 1: to penetrate deeply enough to really heat up the chicken

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Speaker 1: breast in a uniform way, and then you could end

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Speaker 1: up with some raw chicken in the middle, and that's

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Speaker 1: not good. Raw chicken in the middle, And depending on

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Speaker 1: how long you cook it, it could be so you know,

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Speaker 1: crunchy on the outside that you couldn't even eat it. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it'll be in it rubberized. So a normal oven cooks

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Speaker 1: through uh you know the whole convection conduction thing. Yes,

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Speaker 1: it's where you're conducting heat from one area to another.

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Speaker 1: So you're cooking from the outside in. Heat is being

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Speaker 1: applied to the outside of whatever the food is. That

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Speaker 1: heat slowly moves inside and then eventually you have a

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Speaker 1: cooked meal. And usually that means the outside is crispier

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Speaker 1: or as as more well done if you prefer, then

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Speaker 1: the middle is has has had heat applied to it

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Speaker 1: for a longer time and uh and in a more

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Speaker 1: direct way. Microwaves accord s don't do this. The material

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Speaker 1: absorbs the microwaves, and microwaves are being bounced all around

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Speaker 1: the the oven so that it's hitting. Ideally, it's hitting

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Speaker 1: the food from pretty much every direction possible at that point,

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Speaker 1: but of course it doesn't. Each microwave is a little

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Speaker 1: bit different and they changes the age, which is why

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Speaker 1: they have that carousel in the middle to spin the

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Speaker 1: food to try to make sure that everything gets heated.

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Speaker 1: People who use older microwaves often have to stop halfway

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Speaker 1: through and rotate the food and then started again because

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Speaker 1: just because the way the microwaves are are are the

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Speaker 1: microwave ovens are designed, microwaves do tend to hit one

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Speaker 1: side more frequently than another. I mean, it's because they

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Speaker 1: go through this little microwave trough and then they come

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Speaker 1: into the oven itself. They're not completely randomized, so if

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Speaker 1: you aren't, if you don't have a carousel in your microwave,

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Speaker 1: you may have to turn the food once or twice

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Speaker 1: in order to have it heat evenly. Um and um. Yes,

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Speaker 1: I was going to say the the microwaves are hitting

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Speaker 1: the food and they're heating it up, but the air

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Speaker 1: inside the microwave oven is staying at relatively the same

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Speaker 1: temperature because the air is not absorbing the microwaves. Um.

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Speaker 1: And this is another something interesting I found by reading

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Speaker 1: our article about microwave and something site um that uh.

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Speaker 1: I always wondered about those little silvery sleeves that you

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Speaker 1: get with certain kinds of food like hot pockets. Yes,

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Speaker 1: not that we're not we're not sponsored by them or anything.

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Speaker 1: It's not. That's a good example. Without them, I would

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Speaker 1: have died in college. But yes, things that you want

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Speaker 1: crispy on the outside, because things when I was talking

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Speaker 1: about the chicken breast earlier, when I said crispy, it's

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Speaker 1: not We're not talking like the crust on a slice

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Speaker 1: of bread. We're talking rubbery and hard and black in

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Speaker 1: some cases from carbonization. Um. Now this, if you want

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Speaker 1: something like that, like something with a uh that has

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Speaker 1: been fried to be sort of crispy on the outside,

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Speaker 1: you're gonna have to heat up the outside more than

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Speaker 1: you heat up the the middle and do that. They

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Speaker 1: use this foil. That foil is designed to absorb those microwaves,

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Speaker 1: and it heats up faster than the rest of the food,

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Speaker 1: which heats at the outside of the food in addition

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Speaker 1: to cooking the rest of it, so it makes the

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Speaker 1: outside crispy. It's kind of it's kind of simulating what

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Speaker 1: would happen if you put it in a regular oven. Yes,

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Speaker 1: because it's not an approximation. I mean it is an approximation.

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Speaker 1: It's not the real thing. Yeah, exactly, you can only

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Speaker 1: kind of sort of fake it. Um and uh, let's

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Speaker 1: let's talk a little bit about what actually is going

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Speaker 1: on here when you when you switch your microwave on.

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Speaker 1: So what's going on here? You plug your microwave in. Now,

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Speaker 1: First of all, microwaves have a switch that um will

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Speaker 1: only remain shut if you close the door, So the

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Speaker 1: microwave will not operate while the door is open, because

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Speaker 1: the circuit is not is not complete until you close

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Speaker 1: the door. It's very important for the safety of everybody

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Speaker 1: on the outside of the microwave. People inside the microwave,

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Speaker 1: you're kind of screwed. So the door closes, that completes

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Speaker 1: the circuit. No no. I. Uh, you close the door,

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Speaker 1: You've completed the circuit, and then the electricity from your

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Speaker 1: from the power outlet comes in through the microwave, and uh,

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Speaker 1: it goes through first a regular Uh, it goes through

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Speaker 1: a low voltage UM section of your microwave, which this

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Speaker 1: is what powers everything from like uh, your timer, the circuitry,

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Speaker 1: everything that the fan that will turn as the microwave

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Speaker 1: is going, or the carousel that turns as the microwave

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Speaker 1: is going, UM, all the low voltage stuff. UH takes that.

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Speaker 1: That's what hits first. After that, it goes into the

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Speaker 1: high voltage transformer and this boosts the voltage significantly because

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Speaker 1: it turns out the magnetron um not the leader of

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Speaker 1: the Decepticons. As I will discovered, you were just talking

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Speaker 1: about transformer. This is true, um, but yeah, that's what

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Speaker 1: confused me. I was like, it goes into a high

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Speaker 1: voltage transformer and it's called magnetron. Is it a Decepticon? No. Uh.

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Speaker 1: The high voltage transformer then feeds energy into the magnetron,

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Speaker 1: which is what converts the electricity into radio waves known

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Speaker 1: as microwaves. Uh. The microwaves are there's a fan that's

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Speaker 1: blowing and the reason the fan blows is to kind

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Speaker 1: of break up the microwaves so that they go in. Uh,

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Speaker 1: it randomizes it a little bit so that you don't

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Speaker 1: just have a stream of microwaves hitting a very specific

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Speaker 1: spot on the in the oven, because otherwise you would

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Speaker 1: just have one really hot spot and the rest of

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Speaker 1: it wouldn't be very effective, which would mean you would

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Speaker 1: have to place food in a very specific point in

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Speaker 1: the oven um, which kind of you know, defeats the purpose.

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Speaker 1: So uh, it goes. The microwaves go through essentially a trough. Really,

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Speaker 1: it's it's a guidance system. They come into the oven,

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Speaker 1: they get randomized a bit, they bounce around until they

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Speaker 1: are absorbed by something um or they just fizzle out,

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Speaker 1: and then then you get your hot, tasty popcorn, which

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Speaker 1: I can't stand because it gives me migraines. Yeah, I'm sorry,

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Speaker 1: but stove cooked popcorn is so much better the microwave popcorn.

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Speaker 1: It just is. Yeah. Oh, and although it is a

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Speaker 1: quick sack, I agree. I should say that the trough

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Speaker 1: I'm talking about, it's it's a metal channel. It's actually

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Speaker 1: called the wave guide. The name just totally jumped out

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Speaker 1: of my brain. While I was talking about it. But

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Speaker 1: as I looked on in my notes, I realized, hey,

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Speaker 1: I actually did write that down wave guide and so yeah,

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Speaker 1: I'm Steve. Will be your wave guide today. Right on

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Speaker 1: your left you will see the microwaves. Actually you won't

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Speaker 1: because it's outside the range of visible light. Yeah, and uh,

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Speaker 1: if you want to know how magnetron's work, wow, this

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Speaker 1: gets this gets pretty complicated. Yeah, you know, I didn't

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Speaker 1: into that in my research. So they are made up

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Speaker 1: of an anode, a cathode, a filament, and a couple

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Speaker 1: of magnets and um. The idea here is that you're

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Speaker 1: generating a flow of electrons that go from the cathode

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Speaker 1: to the anode. You use the magnets to alter the

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Speaker 1: path of the electrons so that they spin in a

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Speaker 1: Instead of going in a straight line, they go in

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Speaker 1: a curve, and this curve gets tight and they start spinning.

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Speaker 1: This is what generates the radio frequencies, the microwaves. And um,

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Speaker 1: it's you know, I've I've read this description three or

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Speaker 1: four times and then I realized, you know what we

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00:20:35,320 --> 00:20:39,240
Speaker 1: need to do send an email to stuff from the

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Speaker 1: science lab and have them explain how magnetrons work because

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Speaker 1: I think it's more science than tech at this point. Um,

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Speaker 1: it's actually pretty cool. There's some great illustrations on the

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Speaker 1: web in various places that show you what the anode

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Speaker 1: and the cathode look like. Um, the anode actually has

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Speaker 1: chambers in it. Uh. And I read the technical description,

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Speaker 1: like I said, three or four times, and I'm still

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Speaker 1: not entirely certain exactly what the mechanics are or you know,

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Speaker 1: the physics are behind this. But yeah, you uh, you

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Speaker 1: pump the high voltage through and uh, you generate the

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Speaker 1: electron flow. The magnets alter the the path of the electrons.

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Speaker 1: That's what creates the radio frequencies, which will eventually cook

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Speaker 1: whatever it is, you know, your Rama noodles or whatever

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Speaker 1: that you're thrown in there. I've thrown out a lot

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Speaker 1: of brand names. Yeah, you know today, I didn't mean

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Speaker 1: to do that. Well again, I'm thinking, like I don't.

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Speaker 1: I don't use microwave ovens as often as I used to.

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Speaker 1: If I do use microwave oven it's to heat up

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Speaker 1: something that I cooked in a more conventional method. Um.

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Speaker 1: Mostly because the foods that tend to come design specifically

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Speaker 1: for microwaves also don't tend to be very healthy, and

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Speaker 1: I'm trying to eat healthier now because I want to

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Speaker 1: last a nice long time to to hunt your every

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Speaker 1: waking moment. You know, I've seen green friendly websites talk

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Speaker 1: about using microwave ovens because they use less energy, they

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Speaker 1: are very efficient, um than conventional ovens, so you know

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Speaker 1: there is an advantage in that. That is true. Um, However,

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Speaker 1: I can't stand what they do to bread. Yeah, well

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Speaker 1: I can eat this for the next two seconds, so

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Speaker 1: I guess we can talk very quickly about some of

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Speaker 1: the stuff that you shouldn't put in a microwave. Um.

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Speaker 1: And honestly, people don't put this stuff in a microwave. Um.

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Speaker 1: If if it doesn't hurt you, it will probably hurt

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Speaker 1: your microwave. Yeah, if nothing else, you may end up

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Speaker 1: damaging your microwave, which is not gonna win you any

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Speaker 1: points in any household. But damaging yourself is certainly not

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Speaker 1: good either, so please don't. So, for instance, have you

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Speaker 1: seen any videos of someone who's cut a grape almost

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Speaker 1: all the way in half and then microwaved it? Um?

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00:22:48,280 --> 00:22:51,040
Speaker 1: You know no, But I actually read a one of

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Speaker 1: those questions by Mr Bloomfield. Um. Actually probably Dr Bloomfield.

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Speaker 1: Um I was talking about blueberries because they were wondering

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Speaker 1: why they're blueberries were catching on fire. He was saying, well,

403
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Speaker 1: actually the blueberries are not technically catching on fire. But

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Speaker 1: I'm thinking, I'm thinking, what I think I know what's

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Speaker 1: happening here. So you cut a grape almost in half

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Speaker 1: until it's just being held together by the skin on

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Speaker 1: one side. So you cut them long ways, put them on,

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00:23:19,160 --> 00:23:22,960
Speaker 1: say like an upturned coffee mug. You put set the

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Speaker 1: microwave for you know, fifteen seconds or something, and then

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Speaker 1: you'll start to see the grape spark and sometimes you'll

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Speaker 1: see some pretty impressive sparks fly up out of the grape.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes it might even catch on fire, and you're thinking,

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Speaker 1: what the heck is happening here? Why are grapes doing this?

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Speaker 1: The theory here is that the microwaves hit the grape,

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Speaker 1: which then heat up very the grape. He's very quickly.

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Speaker 1: There's a lot of moisture in that grape which ends

417
00:23:48,440 --> 00:23:53,640
Speaker 1: up gasifying. It turns into a gas exactly. Well, that's

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Speaker 1: the thing is that first it's a gas, but the

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00:23:55,440 --> 00:23:59,000
Speaker 1: microwaves excite the gas, turning it into a plasma. So

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Speaker 1: a plasma is an ionized gas. It's a gas in

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00:24:02,720 --> 00:24:06,960
Speaker 1: which free electrons are roaming around and it is uh,

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00:24:07,040 --> 00:24:09,320
Speaker 1: it's it's one of them. It is the most common

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Speaker 1: form of matter in the universe. The sun is plasma.

424
00:24:13,640 --> 00:24:16,840
Speaker 1: So you're you're technically turning a bit of that grape

425
00:24:16,840 --> 00:24:21,960
Speaker 1: into plasma. It's it's the evaporation from the grape ends

426
00:24:22,040 --> 00:24:25,280
Speaker 1: up being excited by the microwaves. That becomes an ionized

427
00:24:25,320 --> 00:24:28,320
Speaker 1: gas and that's what you see when it sparks. Um

428
00:24:28,520 --> 00:24:31,439
Speaker 1: and a lot of other materials will do similar things

429
00:24:31,520 --> 00:24:34,040
Speaker 1: when you put them into a microwave. That will give

430
00:24:34,080 --> 00:24:38,000
Speaker 1: off this um, this gas that can get excited by

431
00:24:38,119 --> 00:24:43,560
Speaker 1: the microwaves. So yeah, don't do grapes um, don't put

432
00:24:43,760 --> 00:24:47,359
Speaker 1: don't put eggs. Just like an egg in its shell,

433
00:24:47,440 --> 00:24:49,359
Speaker 1: don't do that. Don't put that in the microwave. It

434
00:24:49,400 --> 00:24:53,600
Speaker 1: will explode the the internal part of the egg will

435
00:24:53,600 --> 00:24:56,080
Speaker 1: heat up to the point where the steam generated will

436
00:24:56,119 --> 00:24:59,560
Speaker 1: be too great for the egg to maintain structural integrity.

437
00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:02,560
Speaker 1: And then you have a massive mess. Bar of soap

438
00:25:02,880 --> 00:25:06,080
Speaker 1: ivory soap, but there's another brand name for you. Put

439
00:25:06,080 --> 00:25:08,679
Speaker 1: a bar of soap in there, and it ends up

440
00:25:08,680 --> 00:25:11,760
Speaker 1: turning into a big foamy mess. But fortunately it's easy

441
00:25:11,800 --> 00:25:15,879
Speaker 1: to clean because it's soap. Um actually might end up

442
00:25:15,880 --> 00:25:18,560
Speaker 1: cleaning your entire microwave in the process, but I still

443
00:25:18,600 --> 00:25:20,119
Speaker 1: don't recommend you to do it because you could end

444
00:25:20,160 --> 00:25:24,080
Speaker 1: up burning yourself very badly. Um. Let's see what other

445
00:25:24,119 --> 00:25:27,680
Speaker 1: things lightbulbs do. Not put any kind of lightbulb into

446
00:25:27,760 --> 00:25:31,679
Speaker 1: a microwave. Yes, the microwaves can heat it up and

447
00:25:31,720 --> 00:25:34,440
Speaker 1: make it light up in your microwave and it looks neat,

448
00:25:34,480 --> 00:25:37,280
Speaker 1: but they will explode, which, first of all, that's incredibly dangerous.

449
00:25:37,280 --> 00:25:40,480
Speaker 1: You're talking about shards of glass flying around. Uh. Second, well,

450
00:25:40,560 --> 00:25:43,320
Speaker 1: if you're using a fluorescent light bulb, you've got some

451
00:25:43,480 --> 00:25:46,919
Speaker 1: really nasty chemicals in there, like mercury that can be

452
00:25:47,720 --> 00:25:50,600
Speaker 1: uh they're very toxic, and you don't want to release

453
00:25:50,640 --> 00:25:54,719
Speaker 1: that into your environment. Peppers, you don't want the nuke

454
00:25:54,840 --> 00:25:57,920
Speaker 1: peppers if you can help. But you know why, why

455
00:25:58,480 --> 00:26:01,840
Speaker 1: not because they give off plasma, but because they will

456
00:26:01,880 --> 00:26:05,159
Speaker 1: possibly release some steam that has kept say us in

457
00:26:05,280 --> 00:26:10,240
Speaker 1: it and then you've just tear gas yourself. Nice ask

458
00:26:10,320 --> 00:26:13,359
Speaker 1: me how I know this? Oh yeah, and you know

459
00:26:13,359 --> 00:26:16,359
Speaker 1: our producer of the day, Matt it's also nodding and

460
00:26:17,000 --> 00:26:20,840
Speaker 1: owning up to Mr Frederick and I apparently both enjoy

461
00:26:21,000 --> 00:26:24,600
Speaker 1: these spicy foods. And we can tell you by the

462
00:26:24,600 --> 00:26:33,000
Speaker 1: way nuking dried peppers particularly bad as I discovered. Yeah,

463
00:26:33,040 --> 00:26:34,840
Speaker 1: you don't want to do that. If you don't, if

464
00:26:34,880 --> 00:26:38,919
Speaker 1: you value things like your eyesight and um and the

465
00:26:39,000 --> 00:26:42,840
Speaker 1: love of those around you, because nothing, there's nothing quite

466
00:26:42,840 --> 00:26:48,720
Speaker 1: like spraying pepper spray across an entire living area to really, um,

467
00:26:48,880 --> 00:26:52,240
Speaker 1: you put a strain on relationships. You know. One other

468
00:26:52,280 --> 00:26:56,520
Speaker 1: thing you don't want to do is overheat stuff you like,

469
00:26:56,520 --> 00:26:59,879
Speaker 1: like a like a type of water superheating, yes, like

470
00:27:00,040 --> 00:27:02,400
Speaker 1: quid And people think this is some kind of a myth.

471
00:27:02,520 --> 00:27:05,480
Speaker 1: How how could water explode on you? Well, the thing

472
00:27:05,640 --> 00:27:09,119
Speaker 1: is if you make a liquid too hot past the

473
00:27:09,160 --> 00:27:11,639
Speaker 1: point at which it's going to boil, and if the

474
00:27:11,680 --> 00:27:14,000
Speaker 1: container it's in is so smooth that there are no

475
00:27:14,080 --> 00:27:17,160
Speaker 1: nuclayic sites there for the water to actually boil. Yeah,

476
00:27:17,200 --> 00:27:20,120
Speaker 1: I mean something generally, a liquid that boils needs something

477
00:27:20,160 --> 00:27:23,840
Speaker 1: to boil on, like a pebble or something to introduce

478
00:27:23,960 --> 00:27:27,439
Speaker 1: some some kind of irregular surface for it to start

479
00:27:27,480 --> 00:27:30,480
Speaker 1: boiling on. If you uh, you know, NUCA cup of

480
00:27:30,480 --> 00:27:33,159
Speaker 1: coffee and then decided to put sugar in it, you

481
00:27:33,200 --> 00:27:35,679
Speaker 1: may suddenly have boiling coffee. What you've just done is

482
00:27:35,720 --> 00:27:40,880
Speaker 1: you have introduced a nuclaic site into a superheated liquid,

483
00:27:41,040 --> 00:27:44,280
Speaker 1: and then it's going to boil spontaneously, which looks a

484
00:27:44,280 --> 00:27:48,040
Speaker 1: lot like an explosion um and can severely burn you.

485
00:27:48,160 --> 00:27:50,479
Speaker 1: It can happen now most of the time. For this

486
00:27:50,520 --> 00:27:53,000
Speaker 1: to happen, like I said, you need to have used

487
00:27:53,080 --> 00:27:55,760
Speaker 1: some sort of very smooth vessel to hold the liquid

488
00:27:55,760 --> 00:27:58,920
Speaker 1: because otherwise it's going to find nuclayic sites find not

489
00:27:59,000 --> 00:28:02,480
Speaker 1: like find in a intelligent way. This is it's gonna

490
00:28:02,560 --> 00:28:06,280
Speaker 1: latch onto any nuclei, excite and boil within the within

491
00:28:06,320 --> 00:28:09,320
Speaker 1: the microwave itself. But if if it's like a very

492
00:28:09,359 --> 00:28:13,480
Speaker 1: smooth ceramic mug and then you put some like non

493
00:28:13,560 --> 00:28:16,640
Speaker 1: dairy creamer in it or some sugar something, it'll it'll

494
00:28:16,720 --> 00:28:19,199
Speaker 1: use as a nucleay e site and just boil immediately.

495
00:28:19,840 --> 00:28:22,520
Speaker 1: And sometimes just moving the cup will do it. Yeah,

496
00:28:22,640 --> 00:28:25,320
Speaker 1: because then you know the liquid is now moving and

497
00:28:25,359 --> 00:28:29,600
Speaker 1: it's it's incredibly dangerous. So yeah, you do need to

498
00:28:29,640 --> 00:28:31,920
Speaker 1: be careful with that. A lot of microwaves now come

499
00:28:31,920 --> 00:28:34,960
Speaker 1: with settings that are preset for certain things, including things

500
00:28:34,960 --> 00:28:37,879
Speaker 1: like reheating a cup of coffee. Um, and this is

501
00:28:37,920 --> 00:28:41,120
Speaker 1: stuff that the manufacturer has determined to be within the

502
00:28:41,160 --> 00:28:44,920
Speaker 1: safe zone. So even then you should still be careful.

503
00:28:45,000 --> 00:28:48,040
Speaker 1: But um yeah, good point. Glad you brought that up.

504
00:28:48,720 --> 00:28:51,280
Speaker 1: Thank you. Well, do you have anything else to say

505
00:28:51,360 --> 00:28:55,000
Speaker 1: about that? Now? I find myself excited by microwaves too,

506
00:28:55,040 --> 00:28:57,760
Speaker 1: so it was it's pretty cool. Oh well, you know,

507
00:28:57,800 --> 00:29:00,440
Speaker 1: it ended up being an interesting subject. I'm actually I

508
00:29:00,520 --> 00:29:03,880
Speaker 1: originally had a one way to wrap this up, but

509
00:29:03,880 --> 00:29:06,920
Speaker 1: I'm gonna change it up. I'm so just like just

510
00:29:07,000 --> 00:29:09,440
Speaker 1: warning you, Pullette. Our listeners have no clue what I'm

511
00:29:09,480 --> 00:29:12,560
Speaker 1: talking about. But we're gonna end with a little listener mail.

512
00:29:15,840 --> 00:29:18,520
Speaker 1: This listener mail comes from Matt from Marietta, Georgia, so

513
00:29:18,680 --> 00:29:20,640
Speaker 1: right up the street. Hey, hey, Matt, I hope you've

514
00:29:20,640 --> 00:29:23,080
Speaker 1: got enough bread and milk and toilet paper because I

515
00:29:23,120 --> 00:29:26,480
Speaker 1: don't know if you know this, but it's snowing outside. Matt,

516
00:29:26,480 --> 00:29:28,800
Speaker 1: says Chris and Jonathan, thank you very much for the

517
00:29:28,840 --> 00:29:31,680
Speaker 1: informative podcast. I'm a new listener and have been trying

518
00:29:31,680 --> 00:29:34,000
Speaker 1: to catch up on your previous episodes. I enjoyed your

519
00:29:34,040 --> 00:29:36,640
Speaker 1: November eleven, two thou nine podcasts and was hoping to

520
00:29:36,640 --> 00:29:40,080
Speaker 1: get a little more exposure to some of the topics discussed. First,

521
00:29:40,120 --> 00:29:44,000
Speaker 1: could you explain a little about plasma generators while not

522
00:29:44,080 --> 00:29:46,640
Speaker 1: cold fusion? You're back to the future reference made me

523
00:29:46,680 --> 00:29:50,520
Speaker 1: think of trash consuming technology. Also, as of yet, time

524
00:29:50,520 --> 00:29:53,560
Speaker 1: travel is not possible, and I'm gonna cut the rest

525
00:29:53,600 --> 00:29:55,440
Speaker 1: of Matt's email because we're probably gonna use these for

526
00:29:55,640 --> 00:29:58,880
Speaker 1: future episodes. Time travel is also probably something from stuff

527
00:29:58,880 --> 00:30:01,040
Speaker 1: in the science lab, but he wanted to know about

528
00:30:01,200 --> 00:30:04,600
Speaker 1: plasma generators and UH and trash. I actually wrote an

529
00:30:04,680 --> 00:30:08,360
Speaker 1: article about plasma waiste converters a long time ago. It's

530
00:30:08,360 --> 00:30:10,400
Speaker 1: one of my first articles while I was writing here

531
00:30:10,880 --> 00:30:14,200
Speaker 1: and how stuff works. So um. In general, what you

532
00:30:14,280 --> 00:30:18,760
Speaker 1: have is a plasma torch, which is again an ionized gas.

533
00:30:18,800 --> 00:30:21,440
Speaker 1: You have a gas that's being UH that goes between

534
00:30:21,480 --> 00:30:25,160
Speaker 1: two very powerful electrodes, which generates an electrical current. It

535
00:30:25,240 --> 00:30:28,520
Speaker 1: ionizes the gas, and it generates an incredibly hot torch,

536
00:30:28,640 --> 00:30:30,680
Speaker 1: a torch that's so hot that it can actually be

537
00:30:30,720 --> 00:30:33,640
Speaker 1: hotter than the surface of the sun. You apply this

538
00:30:33,680 --> 00:30:38,360
Speaker 1: torch to garbage and it either gasifies the garbage if

539
00:30:38,360 --> 00:30:41,240
Speaker 1: it's all carbon based, or it turns it into it

540
00:30:41,320 --> 00:30:45,440
Speaker 1: a it turns into slag, so you get too byproducts

541
00:30:45,440 --> 00:30:48,240
Speaker 1: style of this. You get a gas and you get UH.

542
00:30:48,440 --> 00:30:51,040
Speaker 1: First it's a liquid slag, but if you cool it

543
00:30:51,040 --> 00:30:54,560
Speaker 1: it becomes solid um. It's pretty fascinating stuff. I would

544
00:30:54,560 --> 00:30:57,160
Speaker 1: recommend reading the article. It goes into a lot more detail,

545
00:30:57,440 --> 00:31:01,640
Speaker 1: but you can learn all about how ahaps using plasma torches,

546
00:31:01,960 --> 00:31:05,840
Speaker 1: we could even create fuel from our garbage and UH

547
00:31:06,000 --> 00:31:08,800
Speaker 1: eventually have something like a mr fusion, although again it's

548
00:31:09,080 --> 00:31:14,240
Speaker 1: plasma plasma fication, not not called fusion. So thanks a lot.

549
00:31:14,280 --> 00:31:17,440
Speaker 1: If any of you have any questions or suggestions, write us.

550
00:31:17,440 --> 00:31:20,120
Speaker 1: Our email address is text uff at how stuff works

551
00:31:20,120 --> 00:31:23,360
Speaker 1: dot com. We have articles about microwaves and other nifty

552
00:31:23,400 --> 00:31:25,880
Speaker 1: gadgets on the site. To check that out and Chris

553
00:31:25,920 --> 00:31:28,239
Speaker 1: and I will talk to you again, possibly when it's

554
00:31:28,240 --> 00:31:36,160
Speaker 1: snowing really soon. Plasma for moralness and thousands of other topics.

555
00:31:36,400 --> 00:31:38,680
Speaker 1: Is that how stuff works dot com and be sure

556
00:31:38,720 --> 00:31:40,760
Speaker 1: to check out the new tech stuff blog now on

557
00:31:40,840 --> 00:31:47,680
Speaker 1: the house stuff Works homepage, brought to you by the

558
00:31:47,680 --> 00:31:51,080
Speaker 1: reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready are you