Best Spot in the Microwave? - Smarter Every Day 6

[Music]

Okay, it's me, Destin. I am here with Mike Simons at the National Electronics Museum, and he's going to show us something that we interact with every day that you probably didn't know.

So, what do you got for us, Mike?

(Mike) We have a microwave oven. And the microwave is built on technology that was developed during the Second World War for radar equipment. What we have here is just a standard, off the shelf microwave oven that we've modified.

You'll notice that you can't open up the door and we've disabled the controls, and it's got a separate switch over here on the side. What this is gonna show is how the microwave beam travels inside the cavity of the oven. We've taken a sheet of plastic and we've embedded Christmas bulbs into it, and when I power this thing up it's gonna spin, because it's on the carousel, and as those bulbs flicker, what that is is the beam of microwave energy that travels through the inside of your oven.

[Click] [Microwave hums]

Okay, so what you see here is that those... the beam travelling through the bulbs. The reason that you have a carousel inside your microwave oven is because that beam always travels through the same path. It's just bouncing around inside of there. So if you didn't have that carousel, if you put your cup of coffee in the center of the oven, it might not heat up correctly, because that carousel allows your cup of coffee to travel through different portions of that beam, to make sure it heats up correctly.

This thing also has a heat sink in it, to eliminate some of the heat that's generated by those bulbs. And we've also lowered the power on this. But this is definitely a "do not try this at home." But you can come to the National Electronics Museum and check it out.

(Destin) Awesome. So what is the best way to heat up my coffee in the morning?

• Uhm... probably a tea kettle on your stove.

[Destin laughs]

(Destin) Excellent. So do you get more nerds, geeks or dorks visiting you here, at the National Electronics Museum?

• You know what, we've debated about what's the difference between all three of those, and you know what, I think we get all three but I can't tell the difference.

(Destin) [Laughs] Excellent. So if you get a chance, come up to Baltimore and go to the National Electronics Museum. You'll learn something.

I now know to put my food on the edge of the carousel when I'm heating something up in the microwave, is that correct?

(Mike) Not in the middle.

• That's right. So come up and visit these geniuses if you're a dork, geek, nerd, or anybody that just wants to learn more and be smarter every day.

Alright, thanks Mike.

• Yeah, thanks.

[Music]

...and where your relative motion is going so you can compensate for it, but chickens are really good at this so... I'll show you. Watch his head stay totally stationary as I move his body... Captioning in different languages welcome. Please contact Destin if you can help.