Microwaves

Most of us use microwave ovens on a daily basis to heat food, but we never really stop to wonder how exactly these devices work. Well, if you’re ever curious about the whole process, you can easily extract a lot of information form single Google search. If you want to get more into it, you can try using this fun little tool called Microwaves.

This Java program was created for educational purposes, first and foremost, so you’ll probably have a hard time understanding what you should learn for it, unless you have a physics teacher explain it to you. I confess I’m as far from being knowledgeable in physics as Earth is from the M87 black hole that scientists managed to photograph (around the time this article was written).

Still, I understand that microwaves are a form of electromagnetic radiation that can have a number of uses, including heating food. They do this by channeling heat energy directly to the food’s molecules, which increases their motion. The process is not too different from any other method of heating because, basically, that’s what heat is - a transfer of energy by temperature differences which makes the molecules agitated.

Microwaves comes with four tabs, each containing its own experiment. The first tab shows you how microwaves affect one single water molecule; by now would be a good time to mention that water molecules are the most easily affected by microwaves.

In the second tab, you can play with a single line of water molecules and see how easily they break line when you start the virtual oven. You can easily adjust the frequency and amplitude of the device, but also change the field view (i.e. how the waves are displayed).

In the third tab, you get to experiment with many molecules, while in the fourth you will see how a cup of coffee is heated inside the microwave oven. Even though it’s nothing mind-blowing, Microwaves is a fun application that can remove some of that monotony from physics and chemistry classes.