Wondering why the defrost feature of my microwave is using a non linear function to compute durations: - 100g: 30 seconds - 200g: 2 minutes - 700g: 11 minutes So, if you want to defrost that 700g bread, doing it in 7 batches is way faster 🤷‍♂️ Thanks for coming to my TED talk. - ThreadSky

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madewulf.com • 102 days ago

Wondering why the defrost feature of my microwave is using a non linear function to compute durations:
- 100g: 30 seconds
- 200g: 2 minutes
- 700g: 11 minutes

So, if you want to defrost that 700g bread, doing it in 7 batches is way faster 🤷‍♂️

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

Comments

markpage.be•102 days ago

It seems they have two phases, so to speak. They first blast quite hard, I presume to guarantee that some part of the product thaws. It then moves to a second short interval blast phase, to very gradually allow heat to propagate on its own. I assume this is to avoid actually cooking the target.

markpage.be•102 days ago

As you may gather, the duration of these phases seem to be linear in the weight you wish to defrost, with very different coefficients.

markpage.be•102 days ago

Disclaimer: I am not a microwave engineer, and I have not done an actual quantitative study on this subject. This is just a mental model I've hypothesised to explain this behaviour by assuming the internal logic must be quite simple.

edarchis.bsky.social•102 days ago

Because the microwave has to alternate full power and rest time to let the heat diffuse towards the core. If you blast it more, the outside will get scorching hot and the inside still be frozen.
If you want to see extreme microwaving: https://youtu.be/mg79n_ndR68 😀

madewulf.com•102 days ago

Thanks! That explains it!

Side note: setting up a geek trap like that will most probably catch Eric ;-)

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