Re: Microwaves/anthrax/physics

[Michael McNaughton <mcnaught@LANL.GOV>]

At 09:49 PM 10/20/01 -0700, you wrote:

>Microwaves heat by exciting water molecules specifically.



I believed this until I made the mistake of using it as an example in a 

physics class I teach. To my surprise, I discovered it is not true. After 

class, I searched the internet and found a site that agreed with my belated 

discovery. As a practical observation, note that some plastics are heated 

strongly by a microwave oven.



If anyone would like to review the calculations that show a microwave oven 

is not specific for water molecules, let me know. Briefly, the calculation 

uses E=hf, E=L^2/2I (where I is moment of inertia) and L^2=l(l+1)hbar^2 

(where l is the angular momentum quantum number) (I and l may look the same 

on your computer monitor; the first is upper-case i, the second is 

lower-case L).



mike

Mike McNaughton

Los Alamos National Lab.

email: mcnaught@LANL.gov or mcnaughton@LANL.gov

phone: (505)667-6130



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