If you've spent enough time using a microwave, you've probably accidentally put in aluminum foil at least once, so what causes all those sparks?

Microwave ovens have an electron tube called a magnetron that produces microwaves inside. The microwaves are reflected in the metal inside of the oven and are absorbed by the food. Microwaves make ...

Clearly, as your bog standard microwave oven can only handle at most one kilowatt; the ‘oven’ needed a bit of an upgrade. A 16 kW water-cooled magnetron. Why not over-drive it to 20 kW for fun?

Microwave ovens were initially conceived by Percy Spencer in 1945 after he observed heat-generating microwaves emitted by a magnetron during a radar experiment. His first attempt at converting ...

Over 30 million microwave ovens are sold around the world each ... Spencer only made the connection to food when a radar magnetron accidentally melted a nut cluster he kept in his pocket to ...

A radar magnetron is a sort of electric whistle ... and shared some popcorn with the entire office. The microwave oven was born. Today, Rod Spencer is a project manager and engineer himself.

Another attractive aspect is that many supporting components are already commercially available, and not just inside your microwave oven at home. Powerful magnetron systems have long been used in ...

that will shut off the machine’s magnetron as soon as it’s opened. But as evidenced by the aforementioned microwave oven, these interlocks can break down over time. While microwave ovens are ...