The sponge in the microwave

[elfs]

Omaha just pointed out something very peculiar. I mentioned to her this morning as I cleaned up the kitchen that I had briefly microwaved the sponge to kill all of the germs that collect on it and to kill the way the sponge collects smells. She commented that that seemed an interesting but obvious way to deal with the problem.

In turn, I said that I had read about it in the blogosphere as the aftermath of a publishing disaster. A magazine had printed the technique, only to thereafter receive a lot of email from angry readers who said that the trick had set fire to the sponge. The editors had to print on their website and the next issue that the sponge had to be wet for the technique to work.

I said to Omaha, "Is there anyone out there who doesn't know that microwave radiation is set to the frequency of water and it's the water in food that's actually being heated up when you use a microwave?"

She replied that it was probably not common knowledge and challenged me to look it up in the manual. She was right: nowhere in the microwave's manual is there even the briefest mention of "How microwaving works." For some reason, that seems really irresponsible. Not to mention, prone to error: if you have some clue about how the machine works, you have a better chance of making it work correctly the first time, right?

Comments

How long do you microwave your sponges?

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

a href="http://fycs.ifas.ufl.edu/newsletters/rnycu06/2007/03/putting-things-in-perspective-is-it.html">The major study on the subject recommends microwaving for 2-3 minutes. Further experimentation recommends, for safety's sake, that cellulose sponges be thoroughly wet while microwaving.

Damn!

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

Bad code, no biscuit. Try this.

[lucky-otter.livejournal.com]

It actually effects all dielectric molecules, not just water. The resonant frequency of water is considerably higher than the frequency at which most microwaves operate, and some larger industrial microwaves operate at 915MHz rather than 2.45GHz. The "resonant frequency of water" thing? Just a myth.

P.S.

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

The point I was trying to make with my links is that just "briefly" isn't good enough. You need the full 2-3 minutes for disinfection.

[scyllacat.livejournal.com]

*whew* I actually told someone that once, that it's about the water, and they were all like, Nu-uhh! it's how the molecules are shaped. and I was all like, HUH?

So, anyway, the world is back to making sense now.

[scyllacat.livejournal.com]

Ok, so Lucky_otter is bringing it all together now.

But still. Wet sponge. Duh. 2-3 minutes: to get the water hot enough to kill the bugs. Good. Will stop spamming your mailbox now.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[rarkrarkrark.livejournal.com]

You seem to be operating under the delusion that most people bother to read the manual.

AFAIK appliance manuals exist entirely to make legal departments happy. Any actual use they have to consumers is purely coincidental.

[orcaarrow.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, most people don't and just don't care about the reasons why things work. I wish more people were like you and cared about the reasons why. However they don't and that is how we have the society that we have now.

Not 2-3 minutes

[(Anonymous)]

IIRC, 2-3 minutes was enough to get 95% of the species out there, but not the ones that form spores. They had to do multiple cycles (with rewetting) to get those.