Running an empty microwave oven

[Geoff]

13.

That's just unlucky !

geoff

 

[Guest]

most with glass rotating trays will run, the glass absorbs enough rays to
heat up slightly but wont smoke anything.

might ruin your electric bill budget though. ;-))

shakle the damm bird to the cage/perch

or teach the bird to climb inside to warm itself up. ;-P

Is it really true that turning on a microwave with nothing in it will break it?

Even more worrying - will it catch fire or explode?

Don't they have a safety cutout? Can't it sense the Klystron overheating,

or a build up of microwaves over a certain level?

I have purchased a new microwave which has an easier to grab control. I'm

concerned one of my pet parrots will switch it on! (Seriously, they do
stuff like that)he meets. "Good day, Mr. British, thank you to accept me in Your nice
country", but the person interrupts and says: "I am not British, I'm
Chinese."

The Pakistani continues on his way and meets another passer-by. "Thank you

Mr. British for to let my family and me stay here... " Again, he's
interrupted before finishing his sentence. "I no be British, I be Turk!"

He goes a little farther and meets another person and greets him "thank

you for letting me come to your beautiful country." ... "I'm not British,
I'm Kosavon."

 

[colin]

You mean they were lying?!?

well normally in order to cuase an explosion you have to have a combustable
material that burns very quickly,
the force comes from the fact that the burnt material wich is oxidesed takes
up a great deal more volume
and until it expands is under great pressure. in an empty oven there is no
combustables.

they always seem to try something to see if it blows up and if it doesnt
then they make sure it does, its often a caravan or microwave oven that gets
blown up.

A colleague suggested that large metal objects might "short circuit" the

magnetron and draw more power from it than it expects. I didn't agree or
disagree, I know nothing about that sort of thing.

It cant 'draw' more power from it unless that power actualy goes somewhere,
however it can put the magnetron under more stress, the voltages and current
may be higher even though the power is actually less, ie they are out of
phase and hence arnt both high at the same time.

but theres actually not that much to a magnetron, theres a central cathode
wich is like a rod with a heater inside, and a circular anode around this
with slots in, all in a vacuum and also not surprisngly a strong magnet.
The power is picked up via a piece of wire inbetween one of the slots.
The anode is what gets hot due to current flowing and is attatched to a
quite large heatsink with great number of fins wich has a fan blowing on it.

theres not a great deal to go wrong, its simplicity is its strength, the
same basic design was used 60 years ago, it could lose the vacuum of course,
or the insulation could fail, or the heater could break, or the magnet could
lose its strength but most of the parts are designed to work at a high
temperature, its just metal and glass, its not like silicon wich self
destructs at 200'c.

The transformer does actually limit the current anyway.

Colin =^.^=

 

[PeterD]

well normally in order to cuase an explosion you have to have a combustable
material that burns very quickly,
the force comes from the fact that the burnt material wich is oxidesed takes
up a great deal more volume
and until it expands is under great pressure. in an empty oven there is no
combustables.

WEll, almost right... (and your 'normally' does apply, so what you say
is true, but there's more! <bg>)

All you need is pressure, not a combustable substance.

In the case of the balls that 'exploded' were they to have a 'strong'
outter shell, and a high moisture content inside, the moisture could
easily convert to steam and build up pressure until the outer shell
failed--an explosion... It would not be difficult to build up a
hundred PSI of steam pressure, and that would result in a rather large
'bang'!

 

[colin]

WEll, almost right... (and your 'normally' does apply, so what you say
is true, but there's more! <bg>)

All you need is pressure, not a combustable substance.

In the case of the balls that 'exploded' were they to have a 'strong'
outter shell, and a high moisture content inside, the moisture could
easily convert to steam and build up pressure until the outer shell
failed--an explosion... It would not be difficult to build up a
hundred PSI of steam pressure, and that would result in a rather large
'bang'!

aha yes the Boiling liquid expanding vapour explosions didnt think of that
at the time,
but I did think enough to say normally lol,
bit like eggs that explode when you put them in a microwave without first
making a hole in them,
although its not all that exciting.

Colin =^.^=

 

[species5618]

aha yes the Boiling liquid expanding vapour explosions didnt think of that
at the time,
but I did think enough to say normally lol,
bit like eggs that explode when you put them in a microwave without first
making a hole in them,
although its not all that exciting.

Colin =^.^=

Once upon a time whilst visiting the in-laws in Germany, my wife
reheated some hard boiled eggs in their shells in the microwave by
placing an egg in a glass tumbler and then a slightly larger one over
the first 'in case they pop'. They were then placed on the table for
'früstück'. A full two minutes later an egg exploded covering not only
us, but the ceiling, drapes and nick nak display shelves with egg. A
frantic clean up campaign started as was had a little over a hour to
restore the dining room to its pristine condition before the
mother-in-law returned. We can laugh about it now, but we never have
told the in-laws about it. One day when my father-in-law has to change a
light bulb (long-life of course) he might find a bit of dried egg and
wonder....

 

[Peter Hucker]

They're cleverer than you think. One escaped, and flew from tree to tree waiting for me to chase after him. Came back the following day by himself, after flying for miles all over the place.

 

[Guest]

yep, we give humans way too much in the way of exclusive ability to think
and reason. & dont forget, some of these other critters have had eons of
evolutionary expertise in dealing with the occasional problems of human
interference! and they win too! we seem to be ruthless killers for no
reasons at all!

release of grey parrots from zoo in NY city awhile back, they migrated east
to connecticut, began habitating/building HUGE stick nests around (what
else) telephone poles cross arms, complete with transformers and 14 KV feed
thru lines!

30-40 birds per nest, quite a probem for power crews! of course, animal
rights folks went nuts when they had to start removing them!. u can read
articles abt in news archives. quite interesting

)

They're cleverer than you think. One escaped, and flew from tree to tree

waiting for me to chase after him. Came back the following day by himself,
after flying for miles all over the place.

 

[Peter Hucker]

That sounds familiar. My greys love power cords!