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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Re: Why does microwaving two mugs of water take longer than just a single mug?
« on: 08/04/2017 05:24:03 »Naked Scientists podcast listener Ryan has appealed to us for help on this question combining the old tradition of tea making with the much more recent tradition of boiling your water in a microwave!Each object in a microwave oven attenuates the EM field inside and thus the heating time. If this wasn't so then energy wouldn't be conserved.
I like herbal tea, usually when I am sick. I do not currently possess a kettle. You can see where this is going.
When I microwave a mug of water, it takes usually 1:25 to get piping hot. However, when I microwave two mugs of water, and they orbit each other around the rotating plate, it takes about 30-45 seconds longer than double that time to heat them both.
So my question: why does it take longer than double the time to microwave double the water?
I assume it has something to do with one mug blocking the other from microwaves, but that doesn't seem quite right to me. I apologize for my apostasy in neglecting the kettle.
Can you help?
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