10 Facts About Microwaves

Microwaves are widely used in modern technology, for example in point-to-point communication links, wireless networks, microwave radio relay networks, radar, satellite and spacecraft communication, medical diathermy and cancer treatment, remote sensing, radio astronomy, particle accelerators, spectroscopy, industrial heating, collision avoidance systems, garage door openers and keyless entry systems, and for cooking food in microwave ovens.

Microwaves are absorbed by moisture in the atmosphere, and the attenuation increases with frequency, becoming a significant factor at the high end of the band.

Microwaves are especially suitable for this use since they are more easily focused into narrower beams than radio waves, allowing frequency reuse; their comparatively higher frequencies allow broad bandwidth and high data transmission rates, and antenna sizes are smaller than at lower frequencies because antenna size is inversely proportional to the transmitted frequency.

Microwaves are used in spacecraft communication, and much of the world's data, TV, and telephone communications are transmitted long distances by microwaves between ground stations and communications satellites.

Microwaves are employed in microwave ovens and in radar technology.

Related searches

Microwaves emitted by astronomical radio sources; planets, stars, galaxies, and nebulas are studied in radio astronomy with large dish antennas called radio telescopes.

Microwaves are used in stellarators and tokamak experimental fusion reactors to help break down the gas into a plasma, and heat it to very high temperatures.

Microwaves can be used to transmit power over long distances, and post-World War 2 research was done to examine possibilities.

Microwaves are non-ionizing radiation, which means that microwave photons do not contain sufficient energy to ionize molecules or break chemical bonds, or cause DNA damage, as ionizing radiation such as x-rays or ultraviolet can.

Microwaves were first generated in the 1890s in some of the earliest radio experiments by physicists who thought of them as a form of "invisible light".