How Do You Know if Your Uvs Are Flipped

Have you ever wondered if your microwave oven leaks radiations? If so, information technology turns out there is a pretty unproblematic test to check the radiation seal on your microwave oven.

But, before nosotros get into that, let'due south find out what exactly goes on within one.

How does a microwave cook food?

Have you ever wondered how that magical metal box in your kitchen heats upwards food and drinks? As it turns out, the process of "cooking" foods in a microwave oven is really pretty interesting.

The secret comes from the namesake of the machine — microwaves. In case you unaware, these are a blazon of electromagnetic radiation (like calorie-free and radio waves) that lie towards the longer wavelength of the EM spectrum.

diy microwave leak test
Source: Jimmy Tan/Flickr

Microwaves have frequencies ranging from about one billion cycles per second (1 GHz) up to 300 times that and have wavelengths (the distance between peaks) of between 12 inches (30 cm) and 0.04 inches (1 mm). To put that into perspective, radio waves typically accept wavelengths varying from 1 mm to 100 km, and the lite visible to our man optics roughly falls betwixt 380 to 700 nanometers (a sheet of newspaper is typically100,000 nanometers thick).

Inside a microwave oven, microwaves are generated in a piece of tech chosen a magnetron and are beamed into the metal interior of the microwave oven. Here, anything you lot put inside the microwave oven (nutrient or drink, etc) absorbs these rays.

These microwaves excite the h2o molecules within the food/potable, causing it to oestrus up rapidly. The higher the water content within the target food/drink, the faster they tend to cook, so that moist items melt a lot faster than more desiccated items.

For bigger chunks of food, the microwaves actually only cook the outermost layers of the food, with the inner bits cooked via conduction of heat from the outside in.

With all that radiation shooting around inside the microwave oven, it is obviously not ideal to have much of it leaking exterior the box. For this reason, devices like microwave ovens must go through rigorous testing earlier they can be released for full general use.

How do your examination your microwave for radiation leakage?

While very high standards are typically ready for the tolerable levels of microwave leakage from microwave ovens, some microwaves can, and inevitably will escape. So, how practise you exam how effective the microwave shielding is on your microwave?

As information technology turns out, there is actually quite a simple exam.

How to Check If Your Microwave Has a Radiation Leak
Source: Apoltix/Wikimedia commons

A fascinating, if not slightly disconcerting video past Physics Daughter shows usa why we should probably all check our microwave ovens. Her simple experiment shows the states that there is an piece of cake and constructive mode to check the integrity of the radiation shielding on your kitchen apparatus.

And all information technology takes is a little bit of lateral thinking.

Microwave ovens, like prison cell phones, emit radiations in a specific band of EM frequencies -- specifically radio waves. All things being equal, you should expect that by placing your phone inside a microwave and closing the door the signal would exist blocked by the beat of the microwave oven.

If this is the case, it would also be reasonable to assume that yous shouldn't be able to ring the phone in one case it is safely locked inside.

It turns out, this is not really the case. Somehow, and somewhere, EM radiation is able to reach the phone's antennae, resulting in you being able to call information technology from outside!

But how?

As it turns out, the primary form of shielding built into the microwave is a device called a "Faraday cage". These types of devices work dissipating the accuse from EM radiation around their construction. This happens considering electrons in the metallic are excited by the radiation and motility throughout the metal structure of the muzzle, creating an electric field that opposes and cancels out the external wave or field of anything inside it.

How to Check If Your Microwave Has a Radiation Leak
Source: Miya.m/Wikimedia Eatables

In this sense, Faraday cages are effectively hollow conductors. Any breach in the construction of this cage can, theoretically, permit small amounts of EM radiation to "leak" inside (or outside) of the cage.

Co-ordinate to this experiment, it appears this is indeed the case for some microwave ovens.

Do all microwave ovens leak radiation?

This simple experiment is interesting, but information technology is not possible to quantify exactly how much leakage your microwave oven may have. For this reason, more sophisticated means of investigation are required.

For example, are all microwave ovens equal? Peradventure yours is of a lower quality than others?

If you were to repeat the experiment using different ovens, as Physics Girl did, you lot will likely notice that some practise block the cellphones, while others do not.

Building on her findings, she decided to detect which part of the microwave was actually letting the radiation escape. Using aluminum foil to act as a well-nigh-perfect Faraday cage, she completely wrapped her phone. Sure enough, no i was able to call her phone.

does my microwave leak
Source: Tahir Hasmi/Flickr

The adjacent step was to wrap certain parts of the microwave oven to narrow downward and seek out the "leaky" parts. By systematically leaving parts of the microwave unwrapped they hoped to discover the leak. It turned out that the door was the nearly likely culprit.

What are some other uncomplicated tests for microwave radiation leaks?

To confirm her theory, Physics Girl employed the services of a cocky-professed hacker to make utilize of a HackRF radio transmitter and receiver to conduct a more than sophisticated experiment. These devices tin receive and transmit signals from 1 MHz to half dozen GHz.

Using the device and a bona fide Faraday cage, they were able to demonstrate that y'all shouldn't exist able to call a phone shielded past one — if it is fully intact.

Side by side, they tested whether ordinarily used Wi-Fi signals can get through the microwave'southward door. Wi-Fi signals use a like frequency to microwave ovens then this is an interesting test. Microwaves typically operate at effectually 2.45 Gigahertz, whilst cellular signals tend to be around ane.9 Gigahertz or 850 megahertz.

Sure enough, they were able to FaceTime the phone through the microwave door.

Interestingly, older microwave ovens have been shown to affect the quality of your domestic Wi-Fi routers and devices! Merely, we digress.

Using the same detector they were also able to directly detect microwave energy outside of the microwave oven as well.

leaky microwaves a problem
Source: Feral Indeed!/Flickr

They hypothesized that the radiation could be exploiting holes in the shielding of the door, allowing the microwave oven to leak radiation. As Physics Girl points out, her experiments testify that some microwaves practise let the specific frequencies of mobile phones through, providing articulate evidence that some form of radiation leakage is possible within these appliances.

Physics Girl does note that their experiment had a very small sample size, did not take into consideration the microwave oven's age or its proximity to a cellular tower.

These variables could bear upon the results.

Should you be worried if you find that your microwave is leaking?

FDA regulations actually permit for a small amount of leakage over the lifetime of the microwave, of well-nigh 5 mW/cm2at approximately two inches (v cm) from the oven surface. The radiation itself is non-ionizing so won't impairment your Dna directly, rather information technology will excite the water inside your soft tissues.

The FDA does warn that high exposure to microwaves can lead to a painful burn. Organs similar eyes and testes are particularly vulnerable because they have relatively little blood flow to carry away the rut. Besides, the lens of the homo eye is very sensitive to estrus. High levels of microwaves could cause cataracts.

The FDA besides notes that this kind of damage would require a large amount of radiation.

So, should you be concerned if your microwave oven leaks radiation? Put simply, no.

Y'all are more likely to hurt yourself from a heated drinking glass of water than the radiation itself. The radiation volition not be in a loftier enough dose to cause yous any harm.

does my microwave leak
Leaking microwaves bated, never get out your Stormtrooper toys unattended near microwaves either. Source: DocChewbacca/Flickr

So, even if you discover that your microwave leaks some radiation, it is of such a small amount and a non-mutagenic kind, that shouldn't really lose sleep over it. Though, standing very close to your microwave at all times when it is in operation should probably be avoided.

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Source: https://interestingengineering.com/this-simple-test-lets-you-know-if-your-microwave-has-a-radiation-leak

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