The weird thing about microwaves

21 Replies to “The weird thing about microwaves”

1. OK, let's hear it: what are your most (and least) favorite things about your microwave?

2. Ah.. I did not think I would stumble upon a nice child friendly video to explain this "magic box" effect to others.

   Sure I could explain it until the heat death of the universe.. but no.

   Also there is one lady who somehow became a teacher that is unable to get this idea.. maybe this will finally end her nonsense.

3. You got papad ? Indian stuff

4. is "soggyfying" a technical term?

5. Random microwave discovery: I recently made a batch of custard-based ice cream in my new ice cream maker. In the freezer, it froze EXTREMELY HARD. So I decided to try microwaving it to thaw it, something I hadn't done before. Since then, I've read that regular ice cream usually goes all soupy on the outside if you do this. But for some reason, my homemade custard ice cream kept looking like it hadn't thawed much, so I did it a couple more times. Finally I tried it… and it scooped out easy because I had thawed it quite a bit. But the wildest part was that somehow it still held together, in this consistency that was more mousse-like. It wasn't perfect, there were areas of colder and harder ice cream in there too, but now I have a goal to make custard ice cream again and try a variety of microwaving approaches to see what I can come up with – maybe there's some potentially amazing, creamy, fluffy desert option awaiting me!

6. Why do you keep referring to microwaved food as nuked? To me to nuke something is to detonate an atom bomb near it.

7. Microwave is usually an element on my online or gaming handles, so l felt the need to learn as much about them as l can for consistency sake.

   A key tip about microwaving food is to avoid the center of the turntable if possible since the food in the axis of rotation is effectively stationary in the standing wave while the rim sweeps through the hot and cold spots. Also, don't just let frozen food stand when it's done cooking before eating, but in the middle of cooking as well. This gives the heat time to migrate deeper into the food and melt the ice so that it cooks more evenly.

8. this was actually the easiest to understand video on microwaves that ive ever watched

9. I love this channel. I'm a chemist who had no food science experience and basically had to figure it out on the job (lol). Many times I've been thinking about a project and remember something you discussed in your videos. Takes a really good communicator to get technical concepts through so well.

   A bonus thing about the microwave vs. conventional heating when it comes to sogginess: When heating from surface in, the water evaporating into steam also absorbs a lot of heat (same thing which makes sweat so good at cooling you down), so the heat needs to deplete some water from the surface before it can go further down. Because the microwave penetrates a bit and delivers heat below the surface, expansion and evaporation can also happen further below the surface. So the outside will be less dry, meanwhile the percent loss of water is actually higher, it's just that more was taken from the middle instead of the outside.

   Source: I did R&D/troubleshooting for ways to accelerate drying of certain types of candy and this is one I tried.

10. I'm getting 2010 era YouTube vibes from this video ????

11. It's pronounced mee-crow-va-way

12. "As all these excited molecules jiggle back and forth billions of times a second, they generate heat"
    I think the phrasing's not exactly correct here. It's not so much that they generate heat, but the jiggling of those molecules is the heat, isn't it?

13. pro tip: dont'use chef mike

14. You forgot to mention a fact that microwave is designed to heat up your plate not your food.

15. I learned from a technology connections video that microwaves could be used to cook potatoes and ever since i havent looked back, 15min (bc i cook on low settings) and theyre always perfect, no poking no boiling just heat

16. So why do they heat up the plate more than the food?

17. 0:14 I didn't know you had access to the big red button.

18. Would it take another wavelength to melt ice? Or just much more power?

    BTW , I usually defrost stuff by using a very low power for a very long time, like 40 minutes at 100W, and then let it sit for another 10 minutes.
    The downside of enjoying bulky food, I guess. ^^

19. Thank you to Crazy Aarons for your thoughtful sponsorship of this channel and video! Fantastic collaboration. Love to see it!

20. Captivating video! Great job!

21. I also arrived at appreciation of microwave coolness, yet in my mind the explanation was completely different. I told myself that microwave lamp emits photons of light not of a random frequency, but of a one single frequency that is exactly equal to that of an absorption frequency of water molecule. Therefore, specifically water molecules are extra great at absorbing these photons, but all other molecules just "meh, a photon, okay, sure" Therefore literally all of water in your food gets heated up from the radiation bombardment, while all other food is heated solely through in-food convection.

    I was also curious not just "how" does it work, because I have my fair share of calculus and standard model knowledge, but what new recipies can we devise by using this new appliance? How can we cook a food in a novel way that would be impossible with a conventional oven. Can we not just heat something up from fridge temps to slightly hotter than room air temp; can we heat something way up to Maillard temperatures and initiate proper cooking reations without using a conventional oven?

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