July 15th, 2008
#551 - Magnetron
When I was a kid I hung out at a friend’s house that had no microwave. His dad wouldn’t allow it. This was frustrating for us because cooking for ourselves was hard and slow. We would always burn stuff. I finally asked his dad what the deal was and he thought they were unsafe. He felt that since you could see into the box the microwaves were obviously coming through and cooking your face. Also when you opened the door the last burst of microwaves would come flying out into the room. This was over 20 years ago… I wonder if he ever gave in and let them get one. I would think the lack of people dying from cooked faces would be apparent by now.
July 15th, 2008 at 12:12 am
I’m gonna call it “Misunderstanding Household Electronics Week”. But that’s just my guess.
The Duck Has Spoken.
July 15th, 2008 at 12:17 am
I think it’s appliance week too. And as for the microwaves, they can’t get through the metal mesh due to their long wavelength. They get absorbed by the metal. You can see in because visible light has a wavelength short enough to get through (microwaves: a few meters; visible light: 300-600 nm). As for the “burst”, they travel at the speed of light. It’s impossible. The magnetron shuts off when the contact of the door is undone, and all the microwaves dissipate within nanoseconds—before you can tell that the door has opened.
July 15th, 2008 at 12:18 am
Just your daily dose of science.
July 15th, 2008 at 12:51 am
Darnit. Now I’m curious as to what a microwaved photo actually would look like. Melted plastic? Burned and curled up? I need to know!
July 15th, 2008 at 1:12 am
If that puff of air when you opened the microwave was caused by delicious salty buttery microwave popcorn there’s a chance you’ve got lung problems now, doesn’t that suck.
July 15th, 2008 at 1:14 am
If summertime in the World of Biff (Biffworld?) looks like a microwaved photograph, then I think I’d prefer to visit during the winter.
At least, that’s if a microwaved photo looks even somewhat like a microwaved CD… A.K.A. pretty, but not healthy.
July 15th, 2008 at 1:47 am
It’s 2008 and my mother won’t let us have a microwave. She thinks they fry brains.
July 15th, 2008 at 2:29 am
I enjoyed my old microwave; bought it at a goodwill for 15 bucks, and after a power surge lost the ability to use 3, 6, and 9. Needless to say there was a bit of math to do if I had to cook something that required those numbers. I hate doing math when I’m hungry.
July 15th, 2008 at 4:10 am
While microwaves are awesome, I tend not to use them, not enough control over the cooking process for my taste.
Either way, he’s probably the same crazy that won’t use a mobile phone.
July 15th, 2008 at 4:52 am
Chris, wherever you work now, I hope it really utilizes your creativity.
July 15th, 2008 at 5:26 am
How about autumn or spring? o_o
heh. XD
July 15th, 2008 at 5:34 am
At Radar School, for the Nav, one of the search radars we were studying could cook birds in mid-flight, if they flew too close to the emitter horn.
I figure that’ll do your popcorn in about 1.2 microseconds. Efficiency!
July 15th, 2008 at 7:03 am
@trevor - What a nice thing to say.
July 15th, 2008 at 7:14 am
*smacks head* but of course!
oh, the logic….
July 15th, 2008 at 8:27 am
my fiancee still thinks that…about microwaves, I mean. Won’t have one in the house. I just had to heat up my leftover pancakes in the oven. Try though I might to convince her that my family got a microwave some time before I started kindergarten, and 22 years of microwave use has not yet managed to kill me, I still have to cook microwave pizzas in the oven….I feel this defeats the purpose.
July 15th, 2008 at 8:48 am
Interesting, I thought my friend’s dad was unique in his paranoia since I never encountered it again.
July 15th, 2008 at 9:18 am
Normally I’d say this was a bad idea, but given the general operation of Biff’s universe, his plan here really could go either way.
July 15th, 2008 at 9:52 am
One line of weird al’s “I’ll sue ya!” comes to mind; “I sued Panasonic, they never said I shouldn’t use their microwave to dry off my cat!
July 15th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Hey Chris, did your friend’s dad also believe that everything was one big government conspiracy? No offence, but he sounds like the type that wears tinfoil hats to keep from being mind controlled.
July 15th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
What a way to go.
July 15th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
@Knight Blazer - Nope, he just thought that he could open a microwave oven door faster than the speed of light. Apart from that, he was fairly normal.
July 15th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
I opened a microwave door faster than the speed of light once and my hand melted off. Luckily I was still within fifteen hours of my last regeneration so it grew back.
July 15th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
Yep, I think it’s Electrical Appliance Week.
July 15th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
@ Chris (not Chris Hallbeck, The other Chris) - That’s only if you eat microwaved popcorn just about every day for breafast, lunch, and dinner.
July 15th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
Well I would go into detail about how that was not possible but it would seem I wasn’t fast enough,bummer.
July 15th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
Well, SOME people probably shouldn’t have microwaves. Like the guy at work recently who tried to reheat a fast-food burger. Seems he put the whole bag into the microwave. With the burger still inside the wrapper. The FOIL wrapper. The arcing from the foil set the bag on fire. Just another fun day at work…
July 15th, 2008 at 7:17 pm
Love the comic, love the comments, and love the story. Seriously, you couldn’t get any better….. Oh wait, in Biff’s world, he could do better than perfect without having whole universe collapse on one another O.O
Good job!
July 15th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
That summer photo would scare me.
Well, if it actually looked like that in the summer, that would be cool.
But scary.. o.O
July 15th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
Yeah, In my high school they HAD a microwave that we could use if we brought heat up meals and stuff, anyways, some of the kids thought it would be funny if as lunch was ending to put someone’s gym shoe wrapped in foil in for 99 minutes, the lunch room caught fire and we were sent home early, stupidity worked in our favor for once
July 15th, 2008 at 8:09 pm
My mom’s family were the first ones to get a Microwave. Apparantly the neighbor kids came over and they all watched it cook a hot dog.
July 15th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Why can’t that work in real life?!?
July 29th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
Actually, your mates dad was almost right about the microwaves.
Atleast for the microwaves of 20yrs ago.
My dad used to work a elecs company that produced them, and he has some interesting/scary stories.
They are alot safer now, but I still prefer the taste of food cooked the real way.
August 4th, 2008 at 11:11 am
There was a guy who rigged his microwave to run with the door removed; he died.