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Science of Microwave Ovens (2016)

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Re: Science of Microwave Ovens (2016)

#21

Post by SoftTalker »

ssl-3 wrote: post #18
rhodescolossus wrote: post #16

I wonder if there’s a market for a microwave with an IR camera and AI to estimate food weight and thermal conductivity. With accurate heat tracking, it’d only need a button to open the door and no knobs.

We can measure weight using a scale. We can make a solid guess at volume using visible light and a rotating view (already provided by the unfortunately-common carousels), with a bit of CV and math. We can therefore deduce density. We can measure outside temperature using IR. And we can measure the power put into the things being microwaved. And we can also measure the temperature and humidity of the air that is exhau…

Agree. I think 90% if people use their microwave to reheat leftovers or cook pre-packaged meals. All they need is a timer. And I'd prefer a dial to a keypad.

My wife bought a countertop convection oven that has nearly 100 pre-defined cooking programs and 10 different "quick set" buttons. How do we actually use it? Set a temperature and time. With a dial. Could have be so much simpler.

Re: Science of Microwave Ovens (2016)

#22

Post by kbouck »

bell-cot wrote: post #2

(2016), FWIW. The article doesn't mention issues with putting metal - dishes, silverware, twist ties, whatever - in the microwave. IF you know what you're doing, that's pretty harmless. (If not - sparks, fire, and other excitement often results.)

ElectroBOOM demonstrates this:

https://youtu.be/OyTmJX_TC84?feature=shared

Re: Science of Microwave Ovens (2016)

#23

Post by Henchman21 »

slt2021 wrote: post #12
cstrahan wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My (limited) understanding is that the shape is a large factor. Something about sharp edges or points concentrating the electric field induced by the microwaves, leading to a high voltage buildup. So forks are a bad idea, while spoons will likely not result in any sparks.

I once put food covered with alumnium foil (that had ton of creases) to heat up. That was fun show

My aunt did that with baked potatoes in ~1990 and burned down the entire house.

Re: Science of Microwave Ovens (2016)

#24

Post by foobarian »

bell-cot wrote: post #2

(2016), FWIW. The article doesn't mention issues with putting metal - dishes, silverware, twist ties, whatever - in the microwave. IF you know what you're doing, that's pretty harmless. (If not - sparks, fire, and other excitement often results.)

Yeah, Mr. ElectroBOOM has a pretty informative video [1] trying a handful of different configurations of metal objects in a consumer microwave oven. Turns out it's hard to make "interesting" things happen with metal even if you intend to.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyTmJX_TC84&ab_channel=Elect...

Re: Science of Microwave Ovens (2016)

#25

Post by foobarian »

kbouck wrote: post #22
bell-cot wrote: post #2

(2016), FWIW. The article doesn't mention issues with putting metal - dishes, silverware, twist ties, whatever - in the microwave. IF you know what you're doing, that's pretty harmless. (If not - sparks, fire, and other excitement often results.)

ElectroBOOM demonstrates this: https://youtu.be/OyTmJX_TC84?feature=shared

jinx

Re: Science of Microwave Ovens (2016)

#26

Post by MisterTea »

rhodescolossus wrote: post #16

I wonder if there’s a market for a microwave with an IR camera and AI to estimate food weight and thermal conductivity. With accurate heat tracking, it’d only need a button to open the door and no knobs.

I know someone who worked at a failed startup that attempted almost exactly this minus the AI. It used an IR camera paired with a secret method to beam form the microwaves to uniformly heat the food no matter how it was dispersed across a plate. This means you could have a pile of water rich vegetables and a steak on a plate and it would heat evenly. It worked great nut IIRC the issue that caused it to fail was calibration of the IR sensor took a ton of effort and they could not scale that to a production scenario. Edit: should mention it let you dial in a temperature so the method is workable, just needs to scale to production.

Re: Science of Microwave Ovens (2016)

#27

Post by Cheer2171 »

whycome wrote: post #13
Cheer2171 wrote: post #8

This last part is such pseudoscience that it makes me suspicious of everything I was nodding along with before: > Of the 70,000 chemicals in widespread commercial production, only around 500 have been competently screened for human toxicity. Since most products are a blend of numerous ingredients, it is axiomatic that all products contain at least one ingredient that is untested and not known to be safe. This include…

> at least one ingredient that is untested and not known to be safe This seems kinda okay though. It’s very different to saying “known to be unsafe”. There are tons of untested (or insufficiently tested) things.

Do you not understand what the word axiomatic means? If there are 70,000 chemicals and only 500 have been tested, does that mean *every single product* *must* contain an untested ingredient? No, because products don’t randomly pull ingredients out of a hat. Proof by counterexample: pure water in a bottle made of the many materials that have been tested for food safety. But hey, why bother with facts when you can just make shit up and call it "axiomatic"?

Words have meaning.

Re: Science of Microwave Ovens (2016)

#29

Post by 01100011 »

crazygringo wrote: post #20
rhodescolossus wrote: post #16

I wonder if there’s a market for a microwave with an IR camera and AI to estimate food weight and thermal conductivity. With accurate heat tracking, it’d only need a button to open the door and no knobs.

I want an IR camera and I want to input my desired temperature. That's all. Then I want the microwave to cycle on when the camera says everything is below temp, and cycle off as soon as any hot spot hits temp. Then wait for the hot spot(s) to dissipate before cycling back on. Seems like a foolproof way to cook evenly without overcooking. I kind of approximate it now by cooking something frozen on high for a couple mi…

When I was a kid(~1980), I remember our microwave had a removable temperature probe you could insert into the food. I don't know if it was just for informative purposes or if it controlled the cooking however.
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