microwaves

[paperclippy]

because I am too lazy to google this . . .

Say it takes 2.5 minutes to toast a piece of toast. We all agree it takes 2.5 minutes to toast two pieces of toast simultaneously in the same toaster. Say it takes 20 minutes to bake a chicken breast at a given heat. If you put two chicken breasts in the oven, it still takes 20 minutes. So why is it that microwaving one frozen hot pockets thingy may take 2 minutes, but microwaving two of them simultaneously takes longer? Obviously this is some property of the way microwaves work, but to be honest all I know about microwaves is that they involve waves (duh). Anyone know why it works that way?

Comments

[無 (from livejournal.com)]

Basically, the conventional oven mainatins a set temperature, whereas the microwave oven maintains a set power level.

I'm too lazy to type, so: http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/gen01/gen01305.htm

[aardvark428.livejournal.com]

The other answer is right. A microwave puts out energy(in the form, obviously, of microwaves) which is absorbed by molecules in your food. Microwaves are at the right energy to excite water molecules into rotation and vibration and that is what does the heating. Since there is a set amount of energy being given off at a given setting and the energy must be absorbed to do heating, it takes longer to heat more food.