Microwaved water vs. boiled water
My wife runs a bed and breakfast and we often enjoy breakfast conversation with guests. Sometimes we validate the 6 degrees of separation theory. Sometimes we get a chance to learn about a career/hobby/pastime that is new to us. Recently one of our guests caught my attention when she insisted that her tea be made with boiled water, not microwaved water...
She went on to explain that putting water in the microwave changes it structurally. She went on to say that a study was done where two plants were watered together every day: one with water that had been boiled conventionally and the other with water that had been microwaved. At the end of the study, the plant given microwaved water fared noticably poorer than the other. Her concern was that microwaved water was no longer as good as normal water.
I had to stop and consider that for a bit. What is the molecular difference between hot water and cold water? The difference is that the atoms and molecules in hot water are randomly moving around more rapidly. And what do microwaves do to water molecules? It electromagnetically causes the water molecules to rotate rapidly, randomly bumping into other water molecules and thereby creating heat. But I had never heard anything about changing the structure of the molecule. Well, that's not entirely true... Come to think of it. boiling water, by any means DOES ACTUALLY CHANGE WATER - it vaporizes it.
But I digress. So, in the face of an intriguing theory, I did what any red-blooded american man would do... I checked Snopes.com.
And I am relieved to find out that the rumor is merely that... a rumor. Scientifically there is no indication that microwaving water (or food) alters or damamges it in any way other than possibly overcooking it. But don't take my word for it, Check out
http://www.snopes.com/science/microwave/plants.asp for the full story.
Not so easily satisified, however, I also Googled "how does heating food work?" And the first response was http://physics.suite101.com/article.cfm/how_do_microwave_ovens_work. Feel free to read up and impress your friends with this commonplace but little understood phenomenon. For instance, I learned that:
1) You can't heat completely dry food in a microwave (like rice or uncooked pasta) because the microwave heats food by exciting the water molecules within it... no water means no heating. (note to self: put some dry rice in the microwave and see what happens.)
2) Frozen food doesn't heat evenly in the microwave because ice doesn't respond as well to microwaves as liquid water does. So where the ice has melted, that portion will heat more quickly than the portions that are still frozen.
Okay, now go out there an impress your friends with your new found knowledge...
She went on to explain that putting water in the microwave changes it structurally. She went on to say that a study was done where two plants were watered together every day: one with water that had been boiled conventionally and the other with water that had been microwaved. At the end of the study, the plant given microwaved water fared noticably poorer than the other. Her concern was that microwaved water was no longer as good as normal water.
I had to stop and consider that for a bit. What is the molecular difference between hot water and cold water? The difference is that the atoms and molecules in hot water are randomly moving around more rapidly. And what do microwaves do to water molecules? It electromagnetically causes the water molecules to rotate rapidly, randomly bumping into other water molecules and thereby creating heat. But I had never heard anything about changing the structure of the molecule. Well, that's not entirely true... Come to think of it. boiling water, by any means DOES ACTUALLY CHANGE WATER - it vaporizes it.
But I digress. So, in the face of an intriguing theory, I did what any red-blooded american man would do... I checked Snopes.com.
And I am relieved to find out that the rumor is merely that... a rumor. Scientifically there is no indication that microwaving water (or food) alters or damamges it in any way other than possibly overcooking it. But don't take my word for it, Check out
http://www.snopes.com/science/microwave/plants.asp for the full story.
Not so easily satisified, however, I also Googled "how does heating food work?" And the first response was http://physics.suite101.com/article.cfm/how_do_microwave_ovens_work. Feel free to read up and impress your friends with this commonplace but little understood phenomenon. For instance, I learned that:
1) You can't heat completely dry food in a microwave (like rice or uncooked pasta) because the microwave heats food by exciting the water molecules within it... no water means no heating. (note to self: put some dry rice in the microwave and see what happens.)
2) Frozen food doesn't heat evenly in the microwave because ice doesn't respond as well to microwaves as liquid water does. So where the ice has melted, that portion will heat more quickly than the portions that are still frozen.
Okay, now go out there an impress your friends with your new found knowledge...
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