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By Design News Staff -- Design News, August 6, 2001
My water superheated
Just a comment on your editorial "Warning: E-mail can be dangerous (DN Editorial 5/21/01). In 1981, I bought a new Amana microwave oven. My wife and I used the oven frequently to reheat baby food and formula. The instruction manual indicated that the oven (750 watt) was capable of boiling one cup of water in 60 seconds. To test this claim, I filled a clean baby food jar with tap water and set the timer for 60 seconds; the jar was open. After heating at full power for 60 seconds, the water gave no indication of boiling. I set the oven for an additional 60 seconds at full power and pressed start. When the oven finished heating, the water was still not boiling; not even a tiny bubble or waft of steam. Near the completion of the third 60 second round, a violent reaction occurred; all of the water went to the steam state, instantly. The jar did not break. This was the superheated condition for water. Although it was twenty years ago, I never forgot that experiment.
Mark Hartwell
B.S.M.E., Colorado State University, 1987
Did ya hear the one about the Mexican Pet?
I've been trying to get the rumor going that drinking out of Styrofoam cups causes cellulite. I should have thought of the Internet first. Is there still time? Are people still as naïve as they used to be?
Ken Bignoli
Monarch Machine Tool
Cortland, NY
Condescending, insensitive, and sloppy
It seems you find it necessary to be condescending toward "technologically unsophisticated" people who use e-mail. I saw very little in similar e-mails on this topic that "proliferated bad information." These were indeed isolated incidents, but they were real nonetheless. The fact is that technology IS extremely dangerous if not used safely. By the way, I am able to reproduce this phenomenon with little effort. It can and does happen, and can result in tragic circumstances.
If you're as wise as you seem to think you are, where's your sense of responsibility to act out of compassion as a decent human being? Your editorial is an attempt at humor at the expense of others. Besides, there's no value in belittling someone who has a cleaner kitchen than you.
R. Molin
Indianapolis, IN
Can't trust those engineers
I think that technologically unsophisticated people run amok with bad information on the Internet is just a symptom of a growing attitude that you can't trust engineers and scientists because they're all funded by giant corporations who produce research that supports an outcome advantageous to their "patrons." In the news we constantly hear of some expert saying some food is good for you or not harmful or whatever. Then you find out that the scientist is funded by the pork producers or the like.
We all know that research can produce any result we want it to. As a one-time engineering technician at a NASA facility I can personally attest to that. This lack of trust in institutions is well-founded and those who wish to exploit it will find an increasingly wide audience.
Rebecca Hal
Eugene, OR
Misinformation a problem
Thank you for writing exactly what I was thinking about being careful of heating water in a microwave. Misinformation, in my opinion, is the single largest problem with the Internet. People believe anything that is written or heard without attempting to verify the facts. Thankfully, there are people like yourself who do not subscribe to this train of thought and go out of their way to educate others about what they read. Thanks again.
Samit Patel
Maple Shade, NJ
Saw it on TV
I just read your editorial and, while I don't really disagree with your basic premise, I must disagree with your choice of example. Sometime in the last several months I saw an evening television news magazine (I don't remember which one it was) with the story about explosive boiling of water in a microwave. While the reporting on such programs may not be the most reliable, they did a demonstration of the superheating and subsequent explosive boiling several times and it appeared to be very easy to duplicate. The "fairly specific set of conditions" you say are required for this to occur are not that uncommon.
It seems to me that the possibility of this happening is something all microwave users should be aware of even though it is admittedly not a very common occurrence. Maybe the real problem is that whoever sent you the message you refer to didn't really understand the issue and was presenting it in an alarmist manner rather than an informative one!
Peter K. Weinrich, PE
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