Microwaving Things Outside of the Microwave

Ever wonder what would happen if you took a magnetron out of a microwave, strapped it to a stick, and pointed it at random everyday objects?

Well, lucky for you a couple young Russians recorded their research before they presumably hurt themselves and were hospitalized, or maybe just became infertile -- or caused cataracts -- point is don't do it.

They've taken a magnetron out of a microwave, and tied a soup can to the side of it to focus the microwaves. After discovering this, they did the next logical step -- point it at various things and see what happens.


Plus, it makes a great Active Area Denial System!

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16 Responses:

  1. mhoye says:

    "So, gloves?"

    "Nope."

    "Safety glasses?"

    "Nope."

    "Pants?"

    "Why bother?"

    "Ok, let's do this."

  2. David A says:

    Amuse your friends! Irradiate your enemies!

  3. Owen says:

    I remember seeing this and wishing I could use it to disable Harley Davidsons at a distance.

  4. David says:

    Antiaircraft defense tanks' radar is technically similar. And similar dangerous. Some soldiers exposed to it are known to be infertile and some also have died from cancer later.

    • phuzz says:

      So they're sat in a warzone putting out what looks like anti-air radar.
      Actually that's the least of their worries.

      • anonnymoose says:

        Worst case, they're emitting 2Kw of power. Regardless of how powerful their magnetron, it will be emitting a CW signal. They're almost certainly emitting around 2Ghz.

        A relatively weak CW signal somewhere around 2Ghz isn't likely to be confused for anti-aircraft radar. For one thing, microwave radars generally operate in the 5Ghz band. (That's one reason for -in the US- the DFS requirements for a big chunk of 802.11a space.)

  5. robert_ says:

    Electromagnetic radiation is an invention of the devil - ban it now!

  6. MattF says:

    Well, they could just put their fingers into electric sockets, but this is more fun and at a much higher frequency. DZZZT.

  7. xrayspx says:

    Gauss-Schmauss, lemme just hold the light bulb in my hand inches from an exposed magnetron, what's the worst that could happen...

    This kind of reminds me of the Radioactive Boy Scout kid, who built really neat and brilliant things, but didn't really think ahead to how much he might affect his health, and in that case the health of his neighbors and pets with his experiments (twice) :-) The coffee can seemed to pretty much reflect everything where they wanted it to go so I'm sure they're fine, and as Mariachi points out, I guess they have way bigger things to worry about anyway.

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