Will Your Micro Oven Explode if You Put a Metal Spoon in It?

Will Your Micro Oven EXPLODE?

Once when I was a kid I watched a movie in which the hero was hiding in a kitchen from a bad guy, the hero took off his metallic chain and put inside the microwave oven, turns it on and left.
When the bad guy came in the kitchen he saw a spark in the oven and the next second there was a huge boom and the whole kitchen blew up. From that moment on I always became petrified by the thought of putting metal in oven but back then I didn’t knew a truth

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What was the truth? Can you figure it out? The truth justifies the above scene; the answer is at the end of this post.

 Well It will not exactly explode, to understand exactly what will happen let us briefly look into the working of the Micro oven.

Working:

            In primary school we all learned the heat is transferred mainly by three methods.

1. 1.      CONDUCTION
2. 2.      CONVECTION
3. 3.      RADIATION

The micro oven works by heating the food via radiation or more specifically via microwaves which have frequencies b/w 300MHz – 300GHz.

To make matters clearer this is the same principle by which the sun works it releases heat in form of Ultraviolet radiation along with many other radiations and when these radiation interact with your body you feel hot.

So in short the Oven heats food in the same way as the sun heats up things.

How Does Micro Oven Cook Food?

•     Inside micro oven there is a micro wave generator called magnetron. Which converts electricity into radio waves.
•   These waves then enter the food compartment via wave guide.
•   The food which is  on a turntable, spins slowly round so the microwaves cooks the food evenly.
•     The microwave then bounces off the reflective walls of the food oven. When these microwaves interact with the food itself, they don't bounce off But they penetrate inside the food making the molecules inside it vibrate rapidly.
•     Vibration causes the food to heat up and thus cooking the food.

What Will Happen If We put Meal Inside The Micro Oven?

First of all let me tell you this.

Do you know some parts inside the micro oven are also made of metal

So what does this mean?

Well to put it simply the type of metal and its size and shape has to contribute as to what will happen when you put it inside the oven.

 As you know metals conduct electricity and has many free electrons so when they interact with microwaves inside the oven it causes sparks due to movement of electrons. These sparks can also cause a fire and even damage the oven.

You can at times get away with putting a spoon as they spread the charge whereas forks can cause sparks due to accumulation of electrons at its tines.

So metals with sharp pointed edges are more likely to cause damage.

Quick Fact:

Micro oven was invented by Percy Spencer after the World War 2 and was first sold in 1946.

WARNING:

The micro radiations released from the oven can damage living cells and organisms so it’s dangerous to mess around with it.

The answer is: Back then I didn’t knew that the hero has first leaked the gas pipe and all it needed was a spark to make a fantastic fire show.