Re: microwave, RF heating

[John Denker <jsd@MONMOUTH.COM>]

At 08:26 AM 5/29/00 -0400, Chuck Britton wrote:
> We had a MicroWave/IR spectroscopist PhD working for us as a
> long-term sub, a coupla years back.
> He INSISTED that MicroWave heating is ENTIRELY a conductivity effect
> and that there are NO significant resonances anywhere near the 2.4
> GHz household MicroWave frequency.

Here's an experiment folks can do:

Put some cold ice (T=-5C) in a styrofoam cup.  Put some cold water (T=1C)
in another cup.  Put both in the microwave oven at the same time.  Cook
until the water begins to boil, indicating you have imparted about 99 cal/g
to the water.

What do you think happens to the ice?
  A) If you believe in the "OH bond stretching" explanation recently put
forth in this thread, you presumably expect the ice to have picked up
roughly 99 cal/g also.  Since melting the ice only requires (80+5) cal/g,
the ice should all be melted.
  B) If you believe in the "conductivity" explanation, you presumably
expect that the ice is hardly affected at all.