How do you measure microwaves?

Answer 1

-- Make a slab of ice, cheese, or chocolate, 1/2 inch thick, the same shape and

slightly smaller than the bottom of your microwave oven.

-- The hardest part is: DON'T make the slab in a metal or foil pan. Either make it

in glass, or else you have to take it out of the pan when it's solid.

-- Put the slab in the microwave. If there's a turntable in the microwave, turn it off

or take it out. The slab has to remain still.

-- Start giving it 15- to 20-second shots of cooking power, until soft spots begin

to appear in the slab. When there are enough soft spots, you'll see that they're

laid out like a checkerboard, in rows and columns of spots.

-- Carefully move the slab from the oven to a piece of newspaper spread out on

the table (so you don't make a mess).

-- Measure the distance between two spots in the same row or the same column.

It's hard to tell where a soft spot begins, or where the center of it is, so you'll have

to make several measurements and try to get a good average, reliable number.

It'll be 6.12 centimeters. That's half of the wavelength of the microwave cooking

power.

-- Now look inside, under, around, on the back, top, bottom, or side of the oven.

Find a little metal plate that shows the manufacturer, model number, input power,

and cooking power. Also on that plate, it'll tell the operating frequency of the oven.

All microwave ovens operate at the same frequency. It will say either " 2.450 GHz "

or "2450 MHz ". Those are both the same number.

-- Now you have the frequency and the wavelength. Speed is their product.

(0.1224 meter) x (2,450,000,000 per second) = 299,880,000 meters per second.

The official standard speed of light in vacuum is 299,792,458 , slightly less in air.

These numbers are less than 0.03% different. That's more accurate than the speed

was known before the 1880's. Not bad for using stuff that almost everybody has

around the house these days.

The moral of the story, as far as I'm concerned, is: What a miraculous age of

technology we live in.

Answer 2

Make a shallow slab of ice, cheese or chocolate in the shape and size of the bottom of the microwave oven. The thickness should be 1/2 or 3/4 inches. Don't use a metal container, use glass or plastic. Place this inside the microwave oven. Give it shots of cooking power that are 20 or 30 seconds long, until a bunch of soft spots begin to develop on the surface of the slab. The spots should be in neat rows and columns, and the distance between each spot and the next one in the same row or column is 1/2 the wavelength of the microwave power inside the microwave oven.

Answer 3

-- Put a flat sheet of ice or chocolate into the microwave oven.

-- Give it short bursts of cooking power until you see a checkerboard grid pattern of soft, melty spots developing.

-- Measure the horizontal distance between adjacent spots in the same row or column. The spots are mooshy and indistinct, so the best plan is to measure several of them and take an average.
Your number will come out somewhere around 6.12 centimeters. That's 1/2 of the wavelength of the microwave radiation inside the oven. Double it to get the wavelength ... somewhere around 12.24 centimeters.

-- Look around on the inside or outside of the microwave oven for the little metal data plate that has details of the product printed on it. Somewhere on that plate you'll find the frequency of the microwave cooking power. It'll be something around 2.45 GHz.

-- Multiply the frequency of the microwave cooking power by its wavelength. The product is the speed of electromagnetic energy inside the appliance ... including the speed of light in air.

Answer 4

Microwaves are typically measured in watts using a microwave power meter. This instrument can quantify the power output of a microwave oven or other microwave-emitting device. Additionally, frequency can be measured using a frequency counter or a spectrum analyzer.

Answer 5

There are a few ways in which you could measure a microwave. You could use a ruler or tape measurer.

Answer 6

There should a a label on the back of the microwave. If it does not list watts, but DOES list the amps, then multiply amps (or amperage) times the volts. The answer is wattage (or watts).