It’s Metal Monday again! We hope your week is off to a great start!
Ours has been productive and busy so far, so we can’t complain. Plus, the coffee drinker of the team (Garrett, of course 😉) has been enjoying his daily caffeine fix at the shop from his favorite travel mug painted by the talented @josh.burchett . Even after 2 years of shop abuse it’s still going strong! 🙌🏻
Thinking about this metal mug and how if you want to heat up its contents you have to use a different vessel got me thinking about metal and microwaves...why is it that you can’t microwave metal?? If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably *~{accidentally}~* microwaved some form of metal at some point or another, am I right? 🙈😱😂 If so, you’ve probably seen the sparks fly or the smoke start to form - yikes!
So what is this all about? Well, it turns out that microwave ovens actually send out electromagnetic radiation (in the form of microwaves) and this heats up the molecules of the material in the oven, which makes its overall temperature rise. There is metal all around the outside edges of the microwave oven to keep the microwaves *inside* the oven area, and also to reflect the radiation and direct it toward the substance in the oven so that it can be heated. But when there is excess metal inside the oven (like say a spoon, or a metal plate), those microwaves are reflected back and forth and cause arcing between the metal around the microwave and the metal inside. This arc causes sparks, and the rest is history.
Did you know this was the case? Did you also know that some paper goods, like party plates or napkins, sometimes have metal flakes in the design and this can be enough to cause those sparks? Not that I’m speaking from experience or anything.....ha!
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