Sunday, July 25, 2010

Reach Out and Nuke Someone

I think I was born as an experimenter. I love to try stuff and see if it works, whether it's a new food technique or a genuine lab experiment. One of my favorite parts of my old job was having a chance to try new things that no one had ever done before. I also love to try household experimental stuff, and the quick and easy experiments are always the best.

When I came across "How to Check A Microwave for Leaks" in my WikiHow feed the other day, I just couldn't wait to try it. The experiment is actually pretty simple, but I needed Red's help, so I had to wait all day before I could do it. Essentially, microwave radiation is on a very similar electromagnetic frequency as cell phone radiation, you can check a microwave for radiation leaks by putting your cell phone inside, closing the door, NOT TURNING ON THE MICROWAVE, and calling the phone. If it rings, the microwave is not properly insulated against leaks. Simple enough.

When Red came home from work, and we had the kids in bed, I told him I was going to put my phone in the microwave and that he should call it. Once I told him I wasn't going to turn it on, he wiped the "you have lost your mind" look off his face and replaced it with his "you're just as crazy as always" eyeroll, and we were in business.

Experiment ended when we didn't hear the phone ring, the voicemail picked up, and there was no record of a missed call. Guess we're safe from those electromagnetic waves after all. Of course, there's no real evidence that low levels of microwave radiation are dangerous, but whatever.

As an added bonus, I now know that I can throw my phone in the microwave if I don't want to hear it ring (yes, I know I could just turn the ring tone off, or the phone off completely, but that's way too easy).

Anybody out there just put their phone in the microwave?

8 comments:

  1. Steve is asleep already...thinking of waking him.

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  2. I'm so going to try! We physics geeks love to put stuff in microwaves too.

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  3. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  4. Um, is the above story a complete hoax? Or do I have a major leak in my microwave? Because it wasn't even close.

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