Man starts fire drying his laundry in the microwave

[westingman123]

Ummmm

That certainly bears no resemblance to the Weekly Reader of my youth! Ours was much less entertaining.

 

[arbilab]

So THAT'S where Airplane got that headline.

Never turn your back on a m'wave. I've even had WATER explode.

 

[whirlcool]

Yes, water can explode out of a cup or bowl in the microwave. Back in the late 80's we got a Safety Mailing from NW airlines about this. It's due to surface tension on the water. It seems the water bubbles and surface tension of the water holds the steam in. Then you come along and put a spoon in and it releases this tension allowing the water to come flying out of the vessel. Some people even got hit in the face by boiling water.

How to avoid this? Put anything in the water. A plastic spoon, even a toothpick will work. Why? The item breaks the surface tension and won't allow the build up.

 

[DirectDriveDave]

I have heard about that water thing, but I thought that was only with distilled water.

 

[arbilab]

It has more to do with the container. A perfectly smooth container with no nucleation sites can allow water to superheat above its boiling point (at existing pressure). Once it boils, that creates nucleation sites and it boils all at once. Explodes. Dissolved minerals--missing from distilled--are also nucleation sites.

 

[rolls_rapide]

Any liquid in a microwave can be explosively dangerous, even milk and custard.

I was led to believe that the microwave energy is not evenly distributed around the oven's cavity, effectively causing zones at certain heights where food will cook efficiently or not. This was backed up by the 1980's stushie in the UK, over microwave ovens that did not heat as they were supposed to. The advice was to place a trivet or upturned plate upon the turntable, to raise the food up to a level where the microwaves were being beamed.

I seem to remember a demonstration of the different zones, by means of a disk of stiff paper or card, into which were inserted several lightbulbs from Christmas tree fairy lights. As the turntable rotated, the lights either lit or didn't.

Anyway, the superheated liquid is due to a narrow, tall vessel - say a mug - and the microwaves are focussed at a certain height. This causes a superheated layer to form in the liquid, trapped by a cooler layer on top. Placing a spoon into this causes a violent eruption.

The solution is to briskly stir or whisk the liquid before microwaving, then repeat about half way through the cooking process.

 

[yogitunes]

Thinking outside the box, if you will.....

is it not possible for a microwave to heat the water contained in an article of clothing, creating steam/evaporation, and a blower to remove it to the outdoors.....

WOW, imagine that, using a gas flame, or an electric element, to produce heat, causing the water content in clothing to evaporate, and blower to remove it from the said cylinder...thats sounds like this unit I have in my laundry room, it's called a DRYER!

Plumbing, the latest invention, it moves water from one place to another, it's astounding, it's amazing, get on the band wagon, pipe the crap right out of your house!

 

[frigilux]

This story made the quiz on NPR's show "Wait,Wait Don't Tell Me" today!