Invisible Ninjas Dancing at the Microwave

Storytelling the Microwave Oven Technology

A cooked-up conversation..

Mommy, I microwaved my oats. It does not seem well-cooked.

Ah.. Microwave heating is not quite uniform. Why don’t you make it on the stovetop?

That makes me wonder.. How does the microwave cook? I don’t see any flames!

Hmm. Invisible Egg-shaped Ninjas are in action. They are 5 in number and they string together. Midway in the chamber, the 5 Ninjas join hands and do a frenzy dance. The Ninjas shorten lengthen.. shorten lengthen.. And a crazy 2.4 trillion moves in a second.

Each time they lengthen and move downwards, they smash the food and the water particles inside..

The water particles?

The water particles have an interesting structure. V-shaped HOH.. They like to be swinged at about the same speed as the Ninjas. And each time the force of Ninja enters, the water molecules wiggle wiggle and generate heat. And thereby cooking food at lightning speeds.

5 Ninjas in action. That is quite a rapid dance..

And the water magic.. I get it now, why you sprinkle water over rotis and papads, and why you dab water to the biriyani..

Do the Ninjas leave some secret foot prints?

The Egg shaped Ninjas keep growing and reducing in size. This causes the food right below the egg tips to get intensely heated. In an experiment, a plate filled with a thin layer of cheese when microwaved, one could observe the 5 dips on the cheese spread.. We can say Ninja footprints.

This causes a serious problem of nonuniform cooking. As a result, a circular plate was added to rotate the food and make the heating more uniform.

I see.. Is there a door for the Ninjas? Where do they come from?

Deep inside, there is a MACHINE that generates microwaves. It is called MAGNETRON. On the right end of the chamber is the inlet door for the wave ninjas to enter the chamber. They kind of get reflected on reaching the left side of the chamber. And form the egg-shaped waves standing in the chamber.

That’s cool. Are there always 5 Ninjas?

The microwaves come in a standard size. The bigger ones have 5 Ninjas. The smaller ones have 4 Ninjas.. There is a bit of college-level math connecting the speed of light, the frequency of the crazy dance at 2.4 * 10⁹, and the length of the oven.

There is a whole Physics lab in it. How did they even invent it?

Yes, it is not safe to tinker with a Microwave.

Turns-outs, the discovery of the microwave oven was quite an accident. A scientist was conducting serious experiments with microwaves. These are electromagnetic waves like in WiFi. He noticed that the chocolate in his pocket was melting. And the rest is History.