Why do some coffee mugs get incredibly hot in the microwave while others do not?
I’ve noticed that some ceramic mugs, plates, etc get extremely hot in a microwave while others do not. Is there something in certain glazes?
Tags: ceramic mugs, glazes, microwave
September 21st, 2010 at 10:31 am
Actually, don’t try this at home, but if you put a mug or ceramic dish with silicon carbide in the microwave it will get extremely hot…as in over 1000 degrees. This happens because the molecular structure of silicon carbide vibrates at the close to the same frequency as microwave radiation.
The molecular vibration is what causes the object to heat up. This is what is actually cooking your food, water molecules also vibrate rapidly in microwave radiation.
so to answer your questions the some ceramics could have either water in them or some molecule in the glaze/clay that has a little bit of silicon carbide or other material that vibrates close to microwave radiation.