Una bes mientras yo escuchava ponk se me aserco una army y mis demonios internos no pudieron, mí adrenalina se aceleró comense a sudar y cuando reaccione todos estaban en el suelo, nadie podian detenerme
My parents have some fancier plates that have a wire rim around the outside and when low on clean plates we have made the mistake on more than one occasion of microwaving food in the plate before quickly realizing and aborting the mission.
Yep, that's how I saw sparks in the microwave for the first time. Unfortunately, the shape of the sparks remained engraved in the gold trimming of the plate.
i've seen plates/mugs like that and hope i won't accidentally do it with the few i have. the mistake i did make once was getting a pretty artisinal tea cup with some gold painting on it and putting it in the dishwasher. the lady at the shop said their dishes were dishwasher-safe, which they essentially are, but the gold paint isn't.
RF engineer here. This is the best explanation of how microwaves work that I've seen. Bonus round: ceramic plates heat up for the same reason that wifi can't go through concrete walls: They absorb the microwaves and heat up. The ceramic in plates is especially good at absorbing microwaves (lossy), which is why they heat up faster than your food in a microwave.
With the exception that the microwaves from the magnetron don't "blend into an electric field" rather they form a standing wave in _the_ electro-magnetic field.
@@oscarcacnio8418 With a 1kw amplifier, anything is possible. Just watch out for your eyes, I've heard of technicians ending up in the beam of a microwave link and getting cataracts.
@@One.Zero.One101 I would argue that it actually helps, as in most cases your food is in direct contact with that hot ceramic plate, and the ceramic being hot helps to keep your food warm as you eat it.
My microwave came with a metal grill that you're supposed to use in the microwave to put something on a second level - so you can heat two plates, for example. The grill is mostly round metal bits that don't arc, with the legs edges covered in rubber hats - preventing slipping but also arcing.
I created some arcs in a microwave in the 80's, and subsequently did not question the no metal in the microwave policy. In the early 00's, doing finish carpentry in fancy condos, I installed microwaves with those metal grills. I was briefly stupefied, but then never thought about it again until I saw this video. I guess I though rich people microwaves just had special powers that defied physics.
My grandparents had one with a metal rack with built in pegs just like in an oven. It also had a temperature probe that you could plug in to a jack in the wall with a long cable an a good six inches of metal probe, so you could cook a roast or similar with the automatic function.
For a (somewhat) intuitive explanation of why electrons bunch up in corners: in a very long straight wire with nothing weird, every electron is being pushed on equally from both sides but in a bend, all the electrons are off to the side instead of straight ahead, so they can't push quite as hard. Or to be specific, they're pushing diagonally and not straight on.
my knowledge of what to/not to put in a microwave, as learned from both Mythbusters and personal experience - Grape halves (when microwaved close enough to touch each other, these are guaranteed to arc. Neat light show). Forks (mythbusters couldn't get them to arc, although they did get really hot). Potatoes (they don't blow up. They just dry out and catch fire). Apples (The skin busts open a little and leaks apple juice). CD/DVD/Blurays (Excellent light show, and excellent at destroying your data).
Potatoes are fine. Cut into 2 or 4, add like half a glass of water. One portion cooks in 10 mn. Fastest way I know to cook spuds, I do it all the time.
@CineMiamParis if you want whole potatoes, stab the outside a couple times with a fork, wrap in tissue/cloth to prevent juice going everywhere, then microwave on full power (for a 700W, might be different for other microwaves) for 12 mins, flipping halfway through. The only downside is that the skins don't get all nice and crispy, but for a lazy meal with minimal washing it's great
I have a great recommendation for you to try. Dove hand soap bars. Experiment with different sizes and surface areas :) (not too large though, it can get hot)
Yupp...pursonally I think the biggest asterisk is: *but not all at once It can certainly protect you against many, many threats...but different configurations protect against different threats and you can't have them all at once. If you don't know what you're doing or if you follow advice that was intended for a slightly different use case, you're likely to actually increase your risk...
When I was a kid I misread the warning on the foil packages of poptarts and thought it said “Do Put in Microwave”. So I put it in and hit start, after about ten seconds suddenly there was a flash of blue light as lightning erupted from the foil. The microwave was unharmed and the poptarts were perfectly cooked!
I'm having flashbacks to when I accidentally left a spoon in my soup bowl when I was 10 and my mom FREAKED out at me for good 10 minutes. Meanwhile she would microwave things directly in the plastic tuperwares... funny how the research ended up.
That really depends on the plastic. For example, PP (most IKEA lunchboxes) is microwave safe, ABS (some MEPAL lunchboxes) isn't. So read the label and see if it's labelled as microwavable
NO plastic is microwave safe. Though if you must, the older the plastic the better. After it's been used a hundred times all the chemicals that can leech into the food already have lol
@ninjalectualx plastics are so different (all that "plastic" says is that it's an organic polymer with certain material properties, they can be very different in what is actually in them) that any blanket statememt about "all plastics" or "no plastics" is bound to be wrong And in most cases, older is worse because it was manufactured when less was known about what additives are harmful and which plastics themselves break down over time. They are also more likely to shed microplastics, because of both aging and because less was known about which materials are durable over time. Lastly, the further back you go, the less likely it is the thing was actually tested for microwave safety - I'd never use a lunchbox in a microwave that the manufacturer doesn't explicitly label as microwave safe (so no random takeout containers)
Everyone is free to do what they want but frankly trying to avoid plastic coming into contact with your food is pointless. Whatever is it you’re eating it was already wrapped in plastic at multiple points during production and the more processed the food is the worse it gets. Restaurants are also out as wrapping food with plastic wrap is an obligation for food safety issue. Idk if like people only do it to reassure themselves more than anything
This is mostly to create a nucleation point for the water to boil from. Water heated to boiling temps in the microwave generally won't boil unless there is something inside to create a pressure difference. This is due to the water heating rather evenly in a smooth-walled container, which sort of suspends the liquid's ability to boil even at high temperatures. The moment a spoon or something is added, the boil will trigger and can splash hot water everywhere. As a kid, I knew someone who needed a skin graft after taking hot water out of the microwave and dropping her tea bag into it. The moment the teabag broke the surface, half the liquid launched from her cup and onto her hand and lap. No one ever told me about that until that point, and most adults I know still don't realise that can happen.
@@SpoodyFlopp worth noting while this can happen it usually wont since tap water typically has plenty of dissolved minerals to act as nucleation points. That being said distilled water is a far bigger risk. So definitely do not trust it
it seems you got your knowledge of VPNs directly from the people who paid you to adverise them. this is not what VPNs do. i thought we were past the era of misleading VPN sponsorships everywhere you look
what's wrong with it exactly? I only have a rudimentary CompTIA A+ education, but this is what we're taught (that it tunnels, encrypts, and can mask IP depending on vendor), just wondering if there's something else I'm missing/have wrong?
@@GU-jt5fe agreed 👍 fun story. when I was a student I was able to bypass my uni's site blocker by just enforcing HTTPS and using DNS over HTTPS on Firefox 🤣
The biggest risk I have found is those taco/burrito/hamburger wrappers that are a mix of wax paper and foil and soaked in grease from their food. Those will often catch on fire and burn very well.
My microwave has a metal shelf in the middle, so there’s that… But I had an incident (in a different microwave) that is informative: I had a plastic container of honey that was mostly empty, and the small (
When I grew up, we had a microwave that had a pictogram of a glass with liquid and a cross through it, and next to it the same glass of liquid with a spoon in it and a check mark. So we frequently put metal spoons in if we were heating a liquid. In hindsight, maybe it should've bee a different material? I think the main purpose is to provide a nuclearion point for water vapor to form, to prevent super heating the water which explodes when disturbed
There's just too many little caveats regarding this topic that it's just safer for the general public to remove all metal from the equation. From a safety standpoint, it's much easier to communicate to the public exclude an entire category than to include metals but have these very specific instructions how not to use an appliance because of the potential safety hazards if used incorrectly.
At the same time, giving the general public information that is "easily digestible" to the point of being misleading or incorrect is the sort of thing that leads to scientific illiteracy and distrust. I think there’s a balance to be struck in giving the public straightforward while accurate information.
The biggest caveat is subtly at the start and is an absolute deal breaker. I get the physics of it and entertained the idea of one day putting a round smooth bowl carefully in the center of a microwave I don't mind breaking. Then the fine letter says "not all metal is microwave safe, check it first?" NUH UH, I never saw metal advertising itself as microwave safe, and most go out of their way to say all metal is unsafe, and I know that even if safe, I'll see fireworks if the metal touches the inner walls or another metal object. Plus NO ONE answered me WHY would I even consider putting metal on a microwave. What do I stand to gain? Will still watch because I might learn another new thing besides "not all metal is safe regardless of form factor" but at this age no one brought a good use case for metal on a microwave that isn't a permanent fixture from the device itself.
@@Mordecrox Metal containers are the best type of reusable container for your home in general. Plastic has all the problems we already know about. Glass is essentially impossible to recycle because of the same properties that make it so good at holding stuff, can shatter into dangerous pieces, and spontaneously explodes when heated or cooled too quickly. Metal is infinitely recyclable, stands up the best to heat and temperature change, and won't shatter. So, in the ideal world where you're switching all your food storage containers to metal, knowing that you can put it in the microwave means you can still use your microwave without keeping tupperware around specifically for that.
@PaddedShaman I mean specifically for microwaving. Either I'm putting on a stove or the kind of round pot that could be theoretically safe isn't meant for cooking food anyway
I inadvertently left one of those paper-covered metal twist ties 5:43 in a microwave (it had fallen off the bag I had kept the vegetables I was microwaving in). After about 20 seconds, I smelled burning and saw some arcing. Scary. The twist tie left a very small black dot baked into the ceramic bowl it was in that I could not get off. So, yeah, those things are _not_ a good idea in a microwave.
My brother tried to reheat an Arby's sandwich in the microwave once, forgetting that they use foil+paper wrappers. When he came back there was the smell of electrical smoke, and the microwave didn't work after that.
the one time I've ever seen arcing in a microwave was, indeed, leftover burger bits wrapped in crumpled paper that I'd forgotten had a foil layer. Exactly the kind of shape electrons get excited about. (pun intended)
@@kingplunger1 Big drama when electroboom decided to go against a thoroughly correct and unobjectionable explanation of Faraday's law by Walter Lewin. Long story short, Kirchhoff's loop law isn't valid if there's a changing magnetic field in the loop, because said changing magnetic field induces an EMF. Electroboom decided he would disagree with this and prove to the whole world that he doesn't understand Maxwell's equations.
What an amazing video and sooo informative! Love the addition of all resources and references, easily one of the best cooking science information and entertainment channel in the whole world :D
Microwaves were not a common house appliance in the 90s outside the homes of the wealthy where I grew up so I first used a home microwave (as in contrast with a workplace heating-your-tupperware microwave) when I was a grown person living by myself. And I'd never ever heard you shouldn't put metal in there. I learnt the hard way: I put butter inside its packaging to soften it for cooking in the microwave (it typically comes in a metal sheet packaging here)... and it caught fire.
Man, I have been particularly interested in microwaves lately so this video came out at just the right time. I fixed my 1980s Sunbeam combination microwave/toaster oven and after that, the metal rack was arcing to the heating element for the oven component. I fixed it just by bending the element out of the way.
I'm not certain on the science, but anytime I got something to arc, there was also ample water and potential electrolyte. A baked potato with foil still on and a bowl of pasta with a fork in it are the most immediate examples I can remember right now. I bet these attempts would be more successful with a little saltwater or something equivalent to help concentrate those electrons better.
The microwave in my last apartment came with a metal rack inside it like you would see in an oven. I didn't trust the microwave or the landlord so I took it out, stuck it above the microwave for the duration of my lease minus three days and put it back in before moving out.
Once I left a spoon in a mug while microwaving it and it touched the edge of the microwave. It caused a really nasty burn on the edge of the spoon. So, while it may be “safe”, you still need to be careful (as they pointed out in the video).
There is a certain point in life when you need to learn that never is never true and if never is never true it means that sometimes it is true which is very confusing. Basically there's a ton of things in life where as a kid you're told never to do something just because it'll keep you safe but as an adult you find out that there are specific circumstances where it's actually okay to do the thing you're told not to do. Never play with fire but then as an adult you're allowed to make a fire pit or never touch the stove but as an adult you're allowed to use the stove and you can definitely touch it if it's off and never let someone touch you down there but as an adult you definitely want certain people to touch you down there.
I found aluminum lined bags (otherwise made of some kind of plastic/synthetic material or paper) used for keeping warm food (like takeaway) warm to spark quite a bit, and even threaten to catch fire.
My parents had a microwave oven with a removable metal rack. One warning it had was to make sure to only install it in the built-in hooks and make sure it was at least 1/4" from the interior walls.
I bought a noodle pot that you can put in the microwave and when I saw the inner part of the pot was metal I thought Amazon had lied to me. It works safely but it didn’t feel right. So happy I found an explanation.
Finally, someone put something online to prove me right. I get tired of arguing with those who say no metal in the microwave. Thanks. I'm going to send this to all those who doubt me.
The one cool thing that has been noted, however, is that you can trap this plasma inside a container of some sort- like glass or ceramic, & it'll just stay trapped in there. I have had these decorative plates with a little bit of metal embedded in the rim. Not sure if it's an actual metal strip or metallic paint, but I broke one once & there was no metal poking out, so I'm going to assume the latter. But, these plates do make plasma when I use them in the microwave, the plasma just remains trapped inside the plate. The only bad part about that is, because of that, the plate will give you third degree burns, if you so much as put it in there for even 20 seconds, so I had to make a blanket rule to never use those plates in the microwave in the first place.
Back in the 80's when TV dinners still came in aluminum trays, the packaging actually had instructions on how to cook the tray in a microwave. Simply cover the edge of the tray and outer one-inch of food with aluminum foil, leaving the center of the tray uncovered, and nuke away. It worked just fine.
3:32 I bought some china at a thrift store, whole 82 piece set for like $20. Relevant, because we learned real quick that the gold plated edge on the flower details LOVES to arc in the microwave and will start sparking within seconds of starting it up.
So, when I put a partially opened bonbon in the microwave and it caught fire, was is it because the thin sheet of aluminum foil that was in its wrapping was a little crumpled and torn? Like the edges caused arcing?
My microwave's turntable is enameled steel and there is an accessory that raises the food and that looks like a circular wire rack. You're supposed to use the rack whenever you microwave popcorn.
If you have something like a Chinese soup bow, which often has fancy decoration, the decoration is sometimes a metallic glaze. You can get arcing between the squiggly lines of the decoration, and the arcing will destroy the pattern, leaving dark specs.
Oh the metal thing in the popcon bag explains why years ago i had a bad batch of those and the microwave started arcing a lot, i didn't know what it was and i went and pulled the breaker lol
Ordinary foods can arc as well. I occasionally get arcing when heating up frozen crinkle-cut carrots, I guess because the crinkle cuts add lots of corners for electrons to gather around.
Once upon a time, circa 2010 or so, I was a child, but old enough to explore the world of cooking! I didn't know how microwaves work. My mom and dad was out, so I put noodles and the ready-made spice in a stainless steel bowl, covered it with a stainless steel dish, and cooked it! The edge of the bowl was thin. I saw little sparks between the dish and the bowl's edge, but I didn't bother with that, and took out the delicious, perfectly cooked noodles and ate that! 😋😋
My aunt would always put this china cup which is decorated with gold details into the microwave and it was fine… that is until continued use and washing began to wear it away. That's when the sparks started, and it just got more and more intense over time. Makes sense now, since each new defect adds 2 new congregation points for those (-e). It also creates a tiny gap in the inlay, further facilitating the now prominent arching ⚡ Cool!
My main experience with this was putting a coffee mug that had a thin gold-plated ring around the rim. Just a few seconds into microwaving, and sparks were shooting across the top of my mug. It ended up ruining the gold-plating, too.
I was once microwaving a cup noodle that has sort of paper/aluminum top cover and it caught on fire, it wasn't inextinguishable flame, just some smoke and smoldering but still be careful
My old microwave had an accessory that came with it a porcelain square dish that had a copper mesh under it like a printed circuit board. It was used to toast bread and similar things. No arching at all. Never saw this on another oven anymore.
Not really metal, but i nearly started a microwave fire once. I let the popcorn bag get stuck a little too long on one of the metal plates, since normally it unstucks itself, since my microwave is barely too tiny for popcorn bags, so i need to constantly move it back to the middle plate if it ever gets stuck. Anywho, it started smoking(the white kind), if a little too much and it was smelling pretty burnt, i turned the microwave off, and kept the door closed incase a fire had started in hopes to choke it, i waited around, idk maybe 5 minutes before i took a peek inside and yep, the popcorn closest to the opening and metal tile had been burnt. Dont buy too tiny microwaves! And keep your eyes ON the popcorn bag to make sure it doesnt get stuck.
Anything metal that has points sticking out and they’re close to each other will arc. Forks, crinkled aluminum foil and aluminum take-out containers will very likely arc. Even some stainless steel coffee cups, found that out the hard way. 😁 Also discovered that some stainless cups won’t even heat the contents because they actually block the waves completely.
somewhat recently I tried microwaving a bit of frozen spinach and it arced. Because it was frozen the water wasn't loose enough to absorb the energy, so instead it caught the iron which arced over the frozen, crumpled edges
Been microwaving metal for many years. Metal bowls, cutlery, etc. The only issues I've ever had were 1) a mug with some copper foil decoration, and 2) sometimes white chocolate burns between the prongs of a fork.
What I want to know: when you put safe stainless steel in the microwave - how hot does it get? I know glass gets so hot you can't touch it safely after 7 to 10 minutes. Does stainless steel get as hot?
Whilst the outside of the container may block some of the microwaves, the flip side is that the insides will reflect it back into your food until the energy is completely absorbed, so as long as they can make their way in, it's probably alright (as long as it is a microwave safe design, of course)
The important thing is not to leave loops of metal or conductive material. I once tried to microwave a jar of peanutbutter to melt it, and didn't get that paper lid off completely... Well the underside of that lid is foil, and it created a perfect conductive loop around the edge that melted some of the plastic within seconds of starting the microwave lol Oh yea I also got a set of plates that had little metal trim around the edges, immediately arcs too unsurprisingly
I've done it. I busted the magnetron of my microwave, atleast thats what the LG guys said the reason for it failing was. I used the grill rack which is for the oven part of it for microwaving tasks too. This happened after 4 years of usage so idk if it was actual wear n tear but from my understanding current magnetrons dont actually fail that much.
I have two "metal in microwave" experiences: One is accidentally leaving spoon in a soup, and after short run, I saw zaps all over the spoon. I still have it and it the spoon has "burned" spot's on it. They don't seem to cause further damage. Another is using covers "custom made for our microwave". (the point is to put them on top of your plates to prevent dirtying your microwave, but also to keep steam and help heating some meals more evenly). The only problem, they had some metallic label on them - it just looked like shop bar code, so it was never removed. It also didn't say it was metallic, we only learned that when one day, it caught fire. We had actual fire inside a running microwave, and were happy to be there or we might have lost our house.
I'd say that one reason you are not getting metal sparks in tests is, you are not using food. I recommend soups or other "water heavy" meals. Also, try to buy some really cheap forks, the sparks seem to happen more often on lower quality metals.
The question with VPNs is: who do you trust more, people on your local network and your internet service provider, or the provider of the VPN? If you have, let's say, controlling and tech-savy parents, then a VPN will let you hide the websites you visit (in any case, they can only see the IP address, so e.g. you using google, not what you google). But someone needs the information of what server you want your information sent to, so the VPN provider needs to be able to decrypt the destination information, so they know what websites you frequent
I would like to add that most modern microwaves have their inside metal plating covered with some kind of anti arc coating, so metal to metal arcing between an utensil and the inner wall won't happen, even if you put them close enough, however, I find it still risky because metal to air arcing will always be a possibility with an old utensil with just the right scratch or right dent or a hard to see pointy edge. Not worth the risk.
I once had to have an ok-to-put-metal-in-the-microwave talk... with a magnetics engineer. Her job was simulation work to design motors and she microwaved a metal bowl with her lunch in it every day, apparently thinking it wasn't actually metal. Not the person I thought I'd be explaining electric field crowding to.
I have an oven that also has a microwave function. When using it in microwave mode I can use the oven rack (grille of metal bars) but not the baking tray (sheet metal). Does it have anything to do with the bars on the oven rack all being basically parallel to each other?
When I was a kid in the 1980s, we burned a hole in the wall of our first microwave. Then mom decided not to replace it as she decided microwaves were radiating our food. We didn’t get another microwave until I was 18, shortly before I moved out.
I remember when I cooked chicken in an aluminium tray. It started generating lightning / plasma(?) and melted the bottom of the tray letting chicken juice and such all over the bottom of it. I have now switched to a glass tray instead.
50ish years ago I repaired a commercial microwave oven, which was still kinda new tech at the time. Someone put a stainless steel bowl with some spaghetti in it and the arc/explosion blew the door off. They had refitted the door but the oven leaked enough radiation to cook things outside the oven. Like your hand resting on it while waiting. The basic tech is still the same so I would guess control of stray energy has improved?
I once put the metal wrapper that you get on some fast food in the microwave and it caught fire. It was interesting because the edge of the rapper was burning and then it would just disappear as the flames moved along the paper. Also I swear the microwave turned itself off.
My dad taught me that putting metal in the microwave was fine as long as it didnt touch the edges or other metal things when i was a kid (we had metal dinner plates, that's why the conversation came up) but he never explained me why exactly. I just trusted him because he was an electrical engineer so he probably knew what he was talking about lol now it makes more sense!
Even with a smooth metallic object, if you heat it long enough, it could spark and catch fire. There was an incedent of my uncle live in his hometown who forgets a spoon in his cup and his microwave explodes You also have to remind that when manifaturing, there could be some errors in the metal. Even if it’s smooth under a microscope, its atoms form a rough edge. The electrons can bunch up in those concave points between the atoms so it can still cause arcing (if it get heated long enough)
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You should put a music CD in your microwave. It's round and flat yet you'll get quite the show.
@@michaelmayhem350CDs are not flat. The data is etched into them, which creates rough edges that create arcing. 💿
Microwave their servers. They are all shady.
Microwaves CAN'T heat anything past the boiling point? I wouldn't be so sure.
Una bes mientras yo escuchava ponk se me aserco una army y mis demonios internos no pudieron, mí adrenalina se aceleró comense a sudar y cuando reaccione todos estaban en el suelo, nadie podian detenerme
😁Hey I made an appearance!! Thanks for the simply understandable explanations!
hey I know this guy!
Dude its been 2 weeks upload already
@@miner1546don't rush him. You'd only make him hate working for TH-cam.
@miner Why the negative attitude? He (and I) are two of today's lucky 10,000
New phone who dis
Gold leaf patterning on plates sparks beautifully. Enjoy the light show cos your plate will be knackered
My parents have some fancier plates that have a wire rim around the outside and when low on clean plates we have made the mistake on more than one occasion of microwaving food in the plate before quickly realizing and aborting the mission.
Yep, that's how I saw sparks in the microwave for the first time. Unfortunately, the shape of the sparks remained engraved in the gold trimming of the plate.
i've seen plates/mugs like that and hope i won't accidentally do it with the few i have.
the mistake i did make once was getting a pretty artisinal tea cup with some gold painting on it and putting it in the dishwasher. the lady at the shop said their dishes were dishwasher-safe, which they essentially are, but the gold paint isn't.
Don't microwave the gold-plated mid steaks leftover from salt baea
Yep, I learned that the hard way too!
I learned not to put metal in the microwave from accidentally welding a spoon to a can of beans.
Did you keep it? For keepsakes?
well there's yer problem
Well dang. I guess there you go, we shouldn't put metals in
@@Xiannyohanceramos I don't think so.
Metal is fine, the beans were the problem
RF engineer here. This is the best explanation of how microwaves work that I've seen. Bonus round: ceramic plates heat up for the same reason that wifi can't go through concrete walls: They absorb the microwaves and heat up. The ceramic in plates is especially good at absorbing microwaves (lossy), which is why they heat up faster than your food in a microwave.
With the exception that the microwaves from the magnetron don't "blend into an electric field" rather they form a standing wave in _the_ electro-magnetic field.
And suddenly, I have the urge to try heating up a concrete wall with only WiFi signals. In vain.
@@oscarcacnio8418 With a 1kw amplifier, anything is possible. Just watch out for your eyes, I've heard of technicians ending up in the beam of a microwave link and getting cataracts.
Interesting, would you say ceramics reduce the efficiency of microwaves because it absorbs some of the waves?
@@One.Zero.One101 I would argue that it actually helps, as in most cases your food is in direct contact with that hot ceramic plate, and the ceramic being hot helps to keep your food warm as you eat it.
My microwave came with a metal grill that you're supposed to use in the microwave to put something on a second level - so you can heat two plates, for example.
The grill is mostly round metal bits that don't arc, with the legs edges covered in rubber hats - preventing slipping but also arcing.
I created some arcs in a microwave in the 80's, and subsequently did not question the no metal in the microwave policy. In the early 00's, doing finish carpentry in fancy condos, I installed microwaves with those metal grills. I was briefly stupefied, but then never thought about it again until I saw this video. I guess I though rich people microwaves just had special powers that defied physics.
Wouldn't they be rubber shoes?
@@Timeward76 the legs go down but also up.
My grandparents had one with a metal rack with built in pegs just like in an oven. It also had a temperature probe that you could plug in to a jack in the wall with a long cable an a good six inches of metal probe, so you could cook a roast or similar with the automatic function.
@@smartyhall wouldn't the turn table tangle the probe's lead?
For a (somewhat) intuitive explanation of why electrons bunch up in corners:
in a very long straight wire with nothing weird, every electron is being pushed on equally from both sides
but in a bend, all the electrons are off to the side instead of straight ahead, so they can't push quite as hard. Or to be specific, they're pushing diagonally and not straight on.
ah so its about direction the force is applied. thats much more intuitive thank you
my knowledge of what to/not to put in a microwave, as learned from both Mythbusters and personal experience - Grape halves (when microwaved close enough to touch each other, these are guaranteed to arc. Neat light show). Forks (mythbusters couldn't get them to arc, although they did get really hot). Potatoes (they don't blow up. They just dry out and catch fire). Apples (The skin busts open a little and leaks apple juice). CD/DVD/Blurays (Excellent light show, and excellent at destroying your data).
Potatoes are fine. Cut into 2 or 4, add like half a glass of water. One portion cooks in 10 mn. Fastest way I know to cook spuds, I do it all the time.
@@CineMiamParis I'm not talking about cooking. I'm talking about throwing whatever seems fun into a microwave and seeing what happens.
@CineMiamParis if you want whole potatoes, stab the outside a couple times with a fork, wrap in tissue/cloth to prevent juice going everywhere, then microwave on full power (for a 700W, might be different for other microwaves) for 12 mins, flipping halfway through. The only downside is that the skins don't get all nice and crispy, but for a lazy meal with minimal washing it's great
I have a great recommendation for you to try. Dove hand soap bars. Experiment with different sizes and surface areas :) (not too large though, it can get hot)
A candle with a glass put over it plasma beautiful plasma
"First, it protects whatever you do online from… well, everyone." OOF. There are so many asterisks on this one…
Yupp...pursonally I think the biggest asterisk is:
*but not all at once
It can certainly protect you against many, many threats...but different configurations protect against different threats and you can't have them all at once. If you don't know what you're doing or if you follow advice that was intended for a slightly different use case, you're likely to actually increase your risk...
I protect myself from everyone online by turning my router off. :)
@@General12th Even that doesn't help if you are logged into youtube to comment.
@@barongerhardt pretty sure that's the joke
@@sayaks12 Is it thougH?
Metal is microwave safe? So I can play my favourite music in the kitchen.
just avoid death metal
And heavy metal 😉
Hair metal really gets things going.
Progresso metal🍲
Just gotta make sure it’s not too edgy.
Best approach is to wholesale exclude metal from your microwave unless it is explicitly labelled "microwave safe".
When I was a kid I misread the warning on the foil packages of poptarts and thought it said “Do Put in Microwave”. So I put it in and hit start, after about ten seconds suddenly there was a flash of blue light as lightning erupted from the foil. The microwave was unharmed and the poptarts were perfectly cooked!
And then everyone clapped!
@@TaylorfromPapaLouie
If you hear clapping from the microwave, it might not be alright.
Perfectly cooked, with a bunch of plastic and random chemicals coating the food!
So the microwave put the POP in Pop tarts!
@@ninjalectualx It's a pop tart, that mostly describes the ingredients anyway.
I'm having flashbacks to when I accidentally left a spoon in my soup bowl when I was 10 and my mom FREAKED out at me for good 10 minutes. Meanwhile she would microwave things directly in the plastic tuperwares... funny how the research ended up.
That really depends on the plastic. For example, PP (most IKEA lunchboxes) is microwave safe, ABS (some MEPAL lunchboxes) isn't. So read the label and see if it's labelled as microwavable
NO plastic is microwave safe. Though if you must, the older the plastic the better. After it's been used a hundred times all the chemicals that can leech into the food already have lol
@@ninjalectualx what chemicals specifically are you concerned about?
@ninjalectualx plastics are so different (all that "plastic" says is that it's an organic polymer with certain material properties, they can be very different in what is actually in them) that any blanket statememt about "all plastics" or "no plastics" is bound to be wrong
And in most cases, older is worse because it was manufactured when less was known about what additives are harmful and which plastics themselves break down over time. They are also more likely to shed microplastics, because of both aging and because less was known about which materials are durable over time. Lastly, the further back you go, the less likely it is the thing was actually tested for microwave safety - I'd never use a lunchbox in a microwave that the manufacturer doesn't explicitly label as microwave safe (so no random takeout containers)
Everyone is free to do what they want but frankly trying to avoid plastic coming into contact with your food is pointless. Whatever is it you’re eating it was already wrapped in plastic at multiple points during production and the more processed the food is the worse it gets. Restaurants are also out as wrapping food with plastic wrap is an obligation for food safety issue.
Idk if like people only do it to reassure themselves more than anything
my microwave literally has a infographic symbol on it to tell you to not microwave water without a (metal) spoon in it to prevent delayed boiling
This is mostly to create a nucleation point for the water to boil from. Water heated to boiling temps in the microwave generally won't boil unless there is something inside to create a pressure difference. This is due to the water heating rather evenly in a smooth-walled container, which sort of suspends the liquid's ability to boil even at high temperatures. The moment a spoon or something is added, the boil will trigger and can splash hot water everywhere. As a kid, I knew someone who needed a skin graft after taking hot water out of the microwave and dropping her tea bag into it. The moment the teabag broke the surface, half the liquid launched from her cup and onto her hand and lap. No one ever told me about that until that point, and most adults I know still don't realise that can happen.
@@SpoodyFloppyou can also use a wooden chopstick.
@@SpoodyFlopp worth noting while this can happen it usually wont since tap water typically has plenty of dissolved minerals to act as nucleation points. That being said distilled water is a far bigger risk. So definitely do not trust it
@@aerozord a common occurrence of people getting hurt by this is parents microwaving water for preparing baby food
@@aerozordThat being said, this can also happen with tap water run through a water filter.
I'm not risking my inherited 30+ y/o Sharp Carousel
Don't! Your 30 yr old microwave probably doesn't have the new protections for the magnetron... My microwave from the 90s caught on fire when I did it!
I have a samsung that is older than me, also not risking it. it's stout and i won't get that from a new one.
had to sell my sharp carousel because it was too high wattage for my kitchen
it seems you got your knowledge of VPNs directly from the people who paid you to adverise them. this is not what VPNs do. i thought we were past the era of misleading VPN sponsorships everywhere you look
what's wrong with it exactly? I only have a rudimentary CompTIA A+ education, but this is what we're taught (that it tunnels, encrypts, and can mask IP depending on vendor), just wondering if there's something else I'm missing/have wrong?
@@taihaileizoe"it protects whatever you do online from, well, everyone"
@taihaileizoe It's not wrong, just misleading. All HTTPS connections are already encrypted, you don't need a VPN for that.
Sponsors usually require content creators to read the script as written. It's why nearly every ad is the same.
@@GU-jt5fe agreed 👍
fun story. when I was a student I was able to bypass my uni's site blocker by just enforcing HTTPS and using DNS over HTTPS on Firefox 🤣
Crazy how I was just researching if a metal bowl was microwavable today and you released a video about it today. Thanks for the information.
Remember that it is not all metal bowls. If it has a thin rim or if it gets near the walls of the microwave, it can still arc.
The biggest risk I have found is those taco/burrito/hamburger wrappers that are a mix of wax paper and foil and soaked in grease from their food. Those will often catch on fire and burn very well.
Then don't do that????????
"often"????
My microwave has a metal shelf in the middle, so there’s that…
But I had an incident (in a different microwave) that is informative: I had a plastic container of honey that was mostly empty, and the small (
0:18 - When you got to get that morning microwave smell.
Smells like Kid Cuisine
When I grew up, we had a microwave that had a pictogram of a glass with liquid and a cross through it, and next to it the same glass of liquid with a spoon in it and a check mark.
So we frequently put metal spoons in if we were heating a liquid.
In hindsight, maybe it should've bee a different material? I think the main purpose is to provide a nuclearion point for water vapor to form, to prevent super heating the water which explodes when disturbed
OH MY GOODNESS 7:08 YOU HAVE MY CHILDHOOD FAVORITE PLATE THAT BLUE DOTS ONE we just broke our last spare which was one with green dots ... 😭
There's just too many little caveats regarding this topic that it's just safer for the general public to remove all metal from the equation. From a safety standpoint, it's much easier to communicate to the public exclude an entire category than to include metals but have these very specific instructions how not to use an appliance because of the potential safety hazards if used incorrectly.
At the same time, giving the general public information that is "easily digestible" to the point of being misleading or incorrect is the sort of thing that leads to scientific illiteracy and distrust.
I think there’s a balance to be struck in giving the public straightforward while accurate information.
Disagree. Telling people it's GOOD to boil water in the microwave with a spoon in it would save many burns
The biggest caveat is subtly at the start and is an absolute deal breaker. I get the physics of it and entertained the idea of one day putting a round smooth bowl carefully in the center of a microwave I don't mind breaking.
Then the fine letter says "not all metal is microwave safe, check it first?" NUH UH, I never saw metal advertising itself as microwave safe, and most go out of their way to say all metal is unsafe, and I know that even if safe, I'll see fireworks if the metal touches the inner walls or another metal object.
Plus NO ONE answered me WHY would I even consider putting metal on a microwave. What do I stand to gain?
Will still watch because I might learn another new thing besides "not all metal is safe regardless of form factor" but at this age no one brought a good use case for metal on a microwave that isn't a permanent fixture from the device itself.
@@Mordecrox Metal containers are the best type of reusable container for your home in general. Plastic has all the problems we already know about. Glass is essentially impossible to recycle because of the same properties that make it so good at holding stuff, can shatter into dangerous pieces, and spontaneously explodes when heated or cooled too quickly. Metal is infinitely recyclable, stands up the best to heat and temperature change, and won't shatter. So, in the ideal world where you're switching all your food storage containers to metal, knowing that you can put it in the microwave means you can still use your microwave without keeping tupperware around specifically for that.
@PaddedShaman I mean specifically for microwaving. Either I'm putting on a stove or the kind of round pot that could be theoretically safe isn't meant for cooking food anyway
I inadvertently left one of those paper-covered metal twist ties 5:43 in a microwave (it had fallen off the bag I had kept the vegetables I was microwaving in). After about 20 seconds, I smelled burning and saw some arcing. Scary. The twist tie left a very small black dot baked into the ceramic bowl it was in that I could not get off. So, yeah, those things are _not_ a good idea in a microwave.
My brother tried to reheat an Arby's sandwich in the microwave once, forgetting that they use foil+paper wrappers. When he came back there was the smell of electrical smoke, and the microwave didn't work after that.
3:52 too late! I put grapes in there and made them produce plasma
I knew this for years ! Always ice to see new videos reminding how things work in a more precise and objective way.
Fantastic explainer of subtle physics. The animation and iconography are truly impressing. It was a pleasure consulting on this!
7:13 I just use plates.
I too plate my soup
@@Dawreckk... and bowls, obviously
@@nirn_ what the fuck is a bowl
@@nirn_ just use 5 plates in a formation.
the one time I've ever seen arcing in a microwave was, indeed, leftover burger bits wrapped in crumpled paper that I'd forgotten had a foil layer. Exactly the kind of shape electrons get excited about. (pun intended)
After I put a pop tart in the wrapper in the microwave I learned my lesson.
ELECTROBOOM MENTION 🔥🔥🔥
Once I saw the title I immediately thought that his video will (or at least should) get mentioned
Yeah let's cite the guy who doesn't understand the Faraday law
@@isodoubIet How so ?
@@kingplunger1 Big drama when electroboom decided to go against a thoroughly correct and unobjectionable explanation of Faraday's law by Walter Lewin.
Long story short, Kirchhoff's loop law isn't valid if there's a changing magnetic field in the loop, because said changing magnetic field induces an EMF. Electroboom decided he would disagree with this and prove to the whole world that he doesn't understand Maxwell's equations.
RAAAAH
WHAT THE FUCK IS A RUBBER GLOVE
What an amazing video and sooo informative!
Love the addition of all resources and references, easily one of the best cooking science information and entertainment channel in the whole world :D
Microwaves were not a common house appliance in the 90s outside the homes of the wealthy where I grew up so I first used a home microwave (as in contrast with a workplace heating-your-tupperware microwave) when I was a grown person living by myself. And I'd never ever heard you shouldn't put metal in there. I learnt the hard way: I put butter inside its packaging to soften it for cooking in the microwave (it typically comes in a metal sheet packaging here)... and it caught fire.
I've had plates with metallic paint arc in the microwave. Also, some acidic foods too.
Spent this whole video just trying to figure out what the food in the metal container is. Looks delicious!
Looks like rice with some marinated eggplant. I get something like that at an Indonesian place nearby. Eggplant is savory, sweet/syrupy and spicy.
put a fork in our microwave once by accident, I only noticed my mistake when crazy blue lighting started bouncing off the fork
It won't arc if it's buried in food.
these animations and illustrations are the best. so incredibly cute.
A staple in a tea bag gets me all the time
You're making your tea taste worse if you put the bag in before the water's hot…
why are you even making tea in the microwave in the first place you damn psycho
Man, I have been particularly interested in microwaves lately so this video came out at just the right time. I fixed my 1980s Sunbeam combination microwave/toaster oven and after that, the metal rack was arcing to the heating element for the oven component. I fixed it just by bending the element out of the way.
I'm not certain on the science, but anytime I got something to arc, there was also ample water and potential electrolyte. A baked potato with foil still on and a bowl of pasta with a fork in it are the most immediate examples I can remember right now. I bet these attempts would be more successful with a little saltwater or something equivalent to help concentrate those electrons better.
Some ceramic coated mugs are actually metal inside, so chipped places can spark but a completely covered cup is fine.
The microwave in my last apartment came with a metal rack inside it like you would see in an oven. I didn't trust the microwave or the landlord so I took it out, stuck it above the microwave for the duration of my lease minus three days and put it back in before moving out.
Once I left a spoon in a mug while microwaving it and it touched the edge of the microwave. It caused a really nasty burn on the edge of the spoon. So, while it may be “safe”, you still need to be careful (as they pointed out in the video).
There is a certain point in life when you need to learn that never is never true and if never is never true it means that sometimes it is true which is very confusing.
Basically there's a ton of things in life where as a kid you're told never to do something just because it'll keep you safe but as an adult you find out that there are specific circumstances where it's actually okay to do the thing you're told not to do. Never play with fire but then as an adult you're allowed to make a fire pit or never touch the stove but as an adult you're allowed to use the stove and you can definitely touch it if it's off and never let someone touch you down there but as an adult you definitely want certain people to touch you down there.
As an RF engineer, this is a very well explained video!
I found aluminum lined bags (otherwise made of some kind of plastic/synthetic material or paper) used for keeping warm food (like takeaway) warm to spark quite a bit, and even threaten to catch fire.
My parents had a microwave oven with a removable metal rack. One warning it had was to make sure to only install it in the built-in hooks and make sure it was at least 1/4" from the interior walls.
I bought a noodle pot that you can put in the microwave and when I saw the inner part of the pot was metal I thought Amazon had lied to me. It works safely but it didn’t feel right. So happy I found an explanation.
Thanks. I was having trouble creating plasma in my microwave, now I know how to do it 👍
Finally, someone put something online to prove me right. I get tired of arguing with those who say no metal in the microwave. Thanks. I'm going to send this to all those who doubt me.
Just love the therm "soupyfied air" for plasma!
The one cool thing that has been noted, however, is that you can trap this plasma inside a container of some sort- like glass or ceramic, & it'll just stay trapped in there.
I have had these decorative plates with a little bit of metal embedded in the rim. Not sure if it's an actual metal strip or metallic paint, but I broke one once & there was no metal poking out, so I'm going to assume the latter. But, these plates do make plasma when I use them in the microwave, the plasma just remains trapped inside the plate. The only bad part about that is, because of that, the plate will give you third degree burns, if you so much as put it in there for even 20 seconds, so I had to make a blanket rule to never use those plates in the microwave in the first place.
Back in the 80's when TV dinners still came in aluminum trays, the packaging actually had instructions on how to cook the tray in a microwave. Simply cover the edge of the tray and outer one-inch of food with aluminum foil, leaving the center of the tray uncovered, and nuke away. It worked just fine.
The waybyou draw plasma is really pretty
3:32 I bought some china at a thrift store, whole 82 piece set for like $20. Relevant, because we learned real quick that the gold plated edge on the flower details LOVES to arc in the microwave and will start sparking within seconds of starting it up.
So, when I put a partially opened bonbon in the microwave and it caught fire, was is it because the thin sheet of aluminum foil that was in its wrapping was a little crumpled and torn? Like the edges caused arcing?
My microwave's turntable is enameled steel and there is an accessory that raises the food and that looks like a circular wire rack. You're supposed to use the rack whenever you microwave popcorn.
Watching this after styropyro 20kW microwave was certainly an experience
If you have something like a Chinese soup bow, which often has fancy decoration, the decoration is sometimes a metallic glaze. You can get arcing between the squiggly lines of the decoration, and the arcing will destroy the pattern, leaving dark specs.
I often put stainless steel bowls in the microwave. No problem as long as it doesn't have any sharp edges.
Oh the metal thing in the popcon bag explains why years ago i had a bad batch of those and the microwave started arcing a lot, i didn't know what it was and i went and pulled the breaker lol
Ordinary foods can arc as well. I occasionally get arcing when heating up frozen crinkle-cut carrots, I guess because the crinkle cuts add lots of corners for electrons to gather around.
one of the best things about the period when AOL were putting sign-up CDs through the door every week was microwaving them for a sweeeeeeet light show
Gonna be honest, that explosion sound scared the CRAP out of me. Lol. But I'm glad you got to use that explosion stock asset.
Understood, ready to put an ungodly amount of tupperware in the microwave
Once upon a time, circa 2010 or so, I was a child, but old enough to explore the world of cooking!
I didn't know how microwaves work. My mom and dad was out, so I put noodles and the ready-made spice in a stainless steel bowl, covered it with a stainless steel dish, and cooked it! The edge of the bowl was thin. I saw little sparks between the dish and the bowl's edge, but I didn't bother with that, and took out the delicious, perfectly cooked noodles and ate that! 😋😋
My aunt would always put this china cup which is decorated with gold details into the microwave and it was fine… that is until continued use and washing began to wear it away. That's when the sparks started, and it just got more and more intense over time. Makes sense now, since each new defect adds 2 new congregation points for those (-e). It also creates a tiny gap in the inlay, further facilitating the now prominent arching ⚡ Cool!
My main experience with this was putting a coffee mug that had a thin gold-plated ring around the rim. Just a few seconds into microwaving, and sparks were shooting across the top of my mug. It ended up ruining the gold-plating, too.
I was once microwaving a cup noodle that has sort of paper/aluminum top cover and it caught on fire, it wasn't inextinguishable flame, just some smoke and smoldering
but still be careful
My old microwave had an accessory that came with it a porcelain square dish that had a copper mesh under it like a printed circuit board. It was used to toast bread and similar things. No arching at all. Never saw this on another oven anymore.
Not really metal, but i nearly started a microwave fire once.
I let the popcorn bag get stuck a little too long on one of the metal plates, since normally it unstucks itself, since my microwave is barely too tiny for popcorn bags, so i need to constantly move it back to the middle plate if it ever gets stuck.
Anywho, it started smoking(the white kind), if a little too much and it was smelling pretty burnt, i turned the microwave off, and kept the door closed incase a fire had started in hopes to choke it, i waited around, idk maybe 5 minutes before i took a peek inside and yep, the popcorn closest to the opening and metal tile had been burnt.
Dont buy too tiny microwaves! And keep your eyes ON the popcorn bag to make sure it doesnt get stuck.
Anything metal that has points sticking out and they’re close to each other will arc. Forks, crinkled aluminum foil and aluminum take-out containers will very likely arc. Even some stainless steel coffee cups, found that out the hard way. 😁 Also discovered that some stainless cups won’t even heat the contents because they actually block the waves completely.
somewhat recently I tried microwaving a bit of frozen spinach and it arced. Because it was frozen the water wasn't loose enough to absorb the energy, so instead it caught the iron which arced over the frozen, crumpled edges
Been microwaving metal for many years. Metal bowls, cutlery, etc. The only issues I've ever had were 1) a mug with some copper foil decoration, and 2) sometimes white chocolate burns between the prongs of a fork.
I have left the spoon in while heating oatmeal on accident once and it surprisingly (and thankfully) didnt fry the microwave
“Is it a good idea to microwave this” deffo rotted my young brain, I didn’t want “roasted nuts”
When it comes to the metal rimmed stuff, you used to be able to buy soups with a metal pop-top that you could microwave
What I want to know: when you put safe stainless steel in the microwave - how hot does it get?
I know glass gets so hot you can't touch it safely after 7 to 10 minutes.
Does stainless steel get as hot?
Whilst the outside of the container may block some of the microwaves, the flip side is that the insides will reflect it back into your food until the energy is completely absorbed, so as long as they can make their way in, it's probably alright (as long as it is a microwave safe design, of course)
My microwave has a metal shelf in it like an oven shelf. Only take it out when I have something tall going in
The important thing is not to leave loops of metal or conductive material. I once tried to microwave a jar of peanutbutter to melt it, and didn't get that paper lid off completely... Well the underside of that lid is foil, and it created a perfect conductive loop around the edge that melted some of the plastic within seconds of starting the microwave lol
Oh yea I also got a set of plates that had little metal trim around the edges, immediately arcs too unsurprisingly
You should have "Is it a Good Idea to Microwave That" on for a reunion talk
I've done it. I busted the magnetron of my microwave, atleast thats what the LG guys said the reason for it failing was.
I used the grill rack which is for the oven part of it for microwaving tasks too.
This happened after 4 years of usage so idk if it was actual wear n tear but from my understanding current magnetrons dont actually fail that much.
I currently use butter paper/parchment paper or glass exclusively inside the microwave
My first memory of microwaving metal was chucking a block of cold butter in it and the microwave setting the butter on fire.
I have two "metal in microwave" experiences:
One is accidentally leaving spoon in a soup, and after short run, I saw zaps all over the spoon. I still have it and it the spoon has "burned" spot's on it. They don't seem to cause further damage.
Another is using covers "custom made for our microwave". (the point is to put them on top of your plates to prevent dirtying your microwave, but also to keep steam and help heating some meals more evenly). The only problem, they had some metallic label on them - it just looked like shop bar code, so it was never removed. It also didn't say it was metallic, we only learned that when one day, it caught fire. We had actual fire inside a running microwave, and were happy to be there or we might have lost our house.
I'd say that one reason you are not getting metal sparks in tests is, you are not using food. I recommend soups or other "water heavy" meals. Also, try to buy some really cheap forks, the sparks seem to happen more often on lower quality metals.
4:05 C'mon this is completely unwatchable - you didn't even show Mehdi's monobrow
The question with VPNs is: who do you trust more, people on your local network and your internet service provider, or the provider of the VPN?
If you have, let's say, controlling and tech-savy parents, then a VPN will let you hide the websites you visit (in any case, they can only see the IP address, so e.g. you using google, not what you google).
But someone needs the information of what server you want your information sent to, so the VPN provider needs to be able to decrypt the destination information, so they know what websites you frequent
I would like to add that most modern microwaves have their inside metal plating covered with some kind of anti arc coating, so metal to metal arcing between an utensil and the inner wall won't happen, even if you put them close enough, however, I find it still risky because metal to air arcing will always be a possibility with an old utensil with just the right scratch or right dent or a hard to see pointy edge. Not worth the risk.
Its fun watching a plate with gold leaf on the edges inside a microwave!
I don’t know if it’s all metals, but they conduct electricity and electricity bounces with the metal item like a fork or spoon
I once had to have an ok-to-put-metal-in-the-microwave talk... with a magnetics engineer. Her job was simulation work to design motors and she microwaved a metal bowl with her lunch in it every day, apparently thinking it wasn't actually metal. Not the person I thought I'd be explaining electric field crowding to.
Things to put in a microwave a light bulb, a grape almost completely cut through a cd or dvd. A candle with a glass put over it to produce plasma.
I have an oven that also has a microwave function. When using it in microwave mode I can use the oven rack (grille of metal bars) but not the baking tray (sheet metal). Does it have anything to do with the bars on the oven rack all being basically parallel to each other?
When I was a kid in the 1980s, we burned a hole in the wall of our first microwave. Then mom decided not to replace it as she decided microwaves were radiating our food. We didn’t get another microwave until I was 18, shortly before I moved out.
I remember when I cooked chicken in an aluminium tray. It started generating lightning / plasma(?) and melted the bottom of the tray letting chicken juice and such all over the bottom of it. I have now switched to a glass tray instead.
50ish years ago I repaired a commercial microwave oven, which was still kinda new tech at the time. Someone put a stainless steel bowl with some spaghetti in it and the arc/explosion blew the door off. They had refitted the door but the oven leaked enough radiation to cook things outside the oven. Like your hand resting on it while waiting. The basic tech is still the same so I would guess control of stray energy has improved?
I once put the metal wrapper that you get on some fast food in the microwave and it caught fire. It was interesting because the edge of the rapper was burning and then it would just disappear as the flames moved along the paper. Also I swear the microwave turned itself off.
Thermal diode in the microwave tripped
My dad taught me that putting metal in the microwave was fine as long as it didnt touch the edges or other metal things when i was a kid (we had metal dinner plates, that's why the conversation came up) but he never explained me why exactly. I just trusted him because he was an electrical engineer so he probably knew what he was talking about lol now it makes more sense!
Even with a smooth metallic object, if you heat it long enough, it could spark and catch fire. There was an incedent of my uncle live in his hometown who forgets a spoon in his cup and his microwave explodes
You also have to remind that when manifaturing, there could be some errors in the metal. Even if it’s smooth under a microscope, its atoms form a rough edge. The electrons can bunch up in those concave points between the atoms so it can still cause arcing (if it get heated long enough)