EM fields concentrate from the edges, like how magnetic field lines concentrate around a paperclip hanging from a magnet. It’s not about charged particles being able to retreat, but that the EM field will straight up be stronger in those areas.
Comment on DIY 4th of July
potoo22@programming.dev 3 weeks agoTo my understanding, the arcing is caused by hard edges. E.g. all the elections could be at the end of a fork’s tines, and EM field forces them to jump to another tine instead of going through the root of the fork.
Since spoons are rounded, they don’t need to jump. I don’t think the material plays much of a role in arcing other than providing resistance. They would heat up, but they’d melt before they arc. Still, they can arc from one spoon to another spoon when there multiple spoons close enough.
MotoAsh@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Absolutely. It’s far more likely with a fork, but deep enough or well placed scratches/gouges on a spoon could create the condition.
onslaught545@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
It’s unlikely period. Electroboom did a video on it and had one hell of a hard time getting any metal to arc in the microwave, even balled up aluminum foil.
emeralddawn45@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
Well that just doesnt make sense, theres only been a couple times ive accidentally put metal in a microwave, but i knew it immediately when i did. I wonder if theyve made changes to the way they function.
olafurp@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
There has been no change in the way microwaves work aside from circuit board and adding an inverter to control the power of the microwaves. Microwaves function the same as a laser pointer except the emit photons with a frequency of 2.45GHz.