h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi chaps. Could I ask some of you to run your eye over this A32231549 and check the maths/science?

Thank you

Traveller in Time with one flaw
"We have a magnetron oven with a rotating antenna. "

Hmmm. I'm stumped by this. A quick Google suggests it's a known phenomenon, but I don't understand it.

Unless you have a standing wave in your oven - which you shouldn't if it's cooking properly - I don't see why the peaks should always appear in the same place. They should be flying along at the speed of light.

You *will* get hot spots where waves travelling on different paths interfere, but there is no reason why these should be exactly one-half wavelength apart. Perhaps someone else can explain how it works.

Just out of interest, how old is the oven you tried this in?

Traveller in Time browsing the WEB
"Well, it appears the cavity of microwave ovens is designed to resonate the waves < http://www.gallawa.com/microtech/howcook.html >.

This does explain the half wavelength, just not how to get the effect when you have an oven with a rotating antenna beaming up. "

I actually saw this demonstrated on tv and was so impressed I reproduced it for my nephew. The microwave is only a few months old. It certainly appears to have the emitter on the side, not above or below. It's important to remove the turntable as normally this serves to rotate the food through the hotspots. I read elsewhere that you can't cook ants in a microwave as they just run away from the hotspots.

Surely unless you supply them with a source of food they will eventually get tired ? And then its dead .

best fishes ......tod