John Smith wrote:
Roy Lewallen wrote:

...
This is correct. Cecil and others have often muddled things by
considering only average power, and by doing this, important
information is lost. (As was the case of the statistician who drowned
crossing a creek whose average depth was only two feet.)
...


This:
2. Microwave ovens use standing waves to cook food. This means that
nodes, where the amplitude is zero (where the wave crosses the x-axis),
remain at nearly fixed locations in the oven, and cooking won't occur at
those locations.

From he
http://faculty.fortlewis.edu/tyler_c..._microwave.htm

Now, you can argue that any damn way you wish, but "standing waves of no
power" is a myth for idiots!

Another source, "John", says:

Why is food cooked in a microwave oven sometimes not cooked uniformly?

Inside the microwave oven, the microwaves bounce off the metal internal
walls and set up complex 'standing wave' patterns. As with any wave,
microwaves have peaks and troughs and the intensity of the microwaves is
greatest in the peaks and troughs and lowest at points in between.

So if some food is near one of the peaks it will absorb lots of
microwaves and get really hot, while if it is midway between peaks and
troughs it may receive hardly any microwaves and so not get very hot at
all.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/tv_and_rad...icrowave.shtml

So you're telling us that what cooks food in a microwave oven is the
standing waves and that it isn't because the food itself is the load for
the output of the magnetron? You'd have us believe that standing waves
which result from operating a microwave oven without such a load are
present and actually cooking food?

Dave K8MN