Anyway, opening the microwave this afternoon, I discovered that ours has a metal rack in it. Like, built into the sides. As if it's supposed to be there. A little amateur internet research turned up conflicting authorities. Mythbusters apparently says its pretty much ok to microwave metal. The FDA recommends against it. This anonymous soul on the internet attempts to square the circle:
"When the metal is thick, smooth, with rounded edges--that metal rack--the moving electrons can bounce around freely while rarely hitting another metal atom."Huh!
Hmmm...(my inner physical chemist cringes--yours should too). I think it has less to to do with electrons moving around freely and more to do with increasing proportionately to r^-2--I might be wrong, but it seems more like this:
ReplyDeleteJagged edges come to much smaller r^-2 (think lightning rods, tips of umbrellas, only in your microwave) and are thus more likely to give off higher levels of energy and more sparks.
Hopefully your forks were well-encased in food so this wasn't as large an issue since all of that would be absorbed into the food...