how a microwave works
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20 
Hmmm, question... is this why just putting butter in a bowl to melt it not good idea as there is virtually no water content? In other words, if the microwave energy is not being effectively absorbed by the food, can it travel backwards up to the magnetron and burn it out due to feedback? Where does the excess energy go if not into the food? 
25
#2 The most obvious way to do this is just to run it when empty. The equilibrium between absorbing/escaping and creation of microwaves is shifted, so you get higher field intensity which can overheat and eventually destroy the microwave source. Similar to wrapping a lightbulb in an alu foil.
19
@Siruss, don't bother with butter, MW works also with toilet paper or lightbulbs 
). However, letting MW work without the load will probably lead to somethink breaking... Well, it's a $50 experiment so go for it.
31
#2 There's still plenty of water in butter. Most modern microwaves even have presets to soften or melt sticks of butter.
However, water isn't necessary. While water molecules are particularly good at absorbing energy from microwaves at 2.4GHz, they aren't the only molecules that do so. Oil (such as clarified butter, where all the water has been boiled away) will heat up in a microwave all by itself, but more slowly.
Other things will heat up as well, including dishes that are not microwave safe (that's what makes them unsafe - they absorb the microwaves and heat up by themselves, unlike safe dishes which get hot only by virtue of contact with the heated food).
34
#2 Butter is about 20% water, but it's better to just use the defrost setting to soften it.
Though I normally put in a bowl with an inch of water and put the butter on a plate above the bowl. That way the water is heating the plate from beneath as well.
25
#2, Early microwave ovens were very sensitive to reflected power and would burn-out the magnetron. The easiest way to do that was operate the oven while it was empty. However most modern microwave ovens, even the cheap ones, have no problem with reflected power and can handle operating empty without damage for long periods of time. (usually the amount of time that you realized you forgot to put the food in)
18
i tired it with my memory stick and it surely deleted all DATA! ... forever!
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. need new memory stick! 
(91 votes)
+54
1. davor1387 159 days ago
Wow, where did you dig this video up from. looks like 3D didn't even exist yet.