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The cooking space in a microwave oven is a resonent cavity filled with a plain old radio signal at an incredible power level. Even though none of it is supposed to leak out of the cavity, it's still required to operate at its assigned frequency. The FCC has set aside a sliver of spectrum called the 'ISM' band, meaning "industrial, scientific, and medical", for use by these radio devices that don't care about interference from others of their kind because they're not used for communication. The band is near the frequency of 2.5 GHz (gigahertz), which has a wavelength of 12 centimeters (about 4.7 inches).

Just a few words about the power level inside the microwave oven:

Until a few years ago, there used to be a sliver of spectrum right near the ISM band that was used for microwave radio communication. The most common use for that band was for microwave links between a TV station and its transmitting tower ... to send the video and audio from the studio to the tower for broadcast. It was also used to send the on-the-spot news shots by microwave from the helicopter to the studio.

That kind of operation typically used a microwave transmitter with an output power somewhere between 1 watt and 5 watts, which is plenty of power to carry a clean, solid, noise-free microwave signal anywhere it needs to go.

Actually, when you do the math, it turns out that with the antennas and receivers available today, a microwave link can deliver data, voice, or video something like 2,000 miles, with one watt (+30 dBm) of power coming out of the transmitter. Hold that thought ... 1 watt of microwave power.

The microwave oven in your kitchen most likely shoots 1,000 to 2,000 watts of "cooking power" into the little cubby where you put the soup bowl.

Now you know why it's so important to have the door closed any time the microwave is running, and so important to make sure the door is never damaged. It's really important to have a good RF seal, so none of that radio power leaks out. That would be dangerous, and you really have no need for a weather-radar in your kitchen.

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13y ago

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