The domain of electromagnetic waves has brought with it technological developments that have changed the dynamics of today’s society, defining the world as we know it, giving us the facilities that we enjoy and the different devices that we assume as everyday. Among them are microwaves and cell phones (mobiles).
In 1945, engineer Percy L. Spencer was working on a new vacuum tube called a magnetron, where the microwaves used by radars are produced. One day he noticed that the chocolate bar in his pocket had melted.
Intrigued, he put some corn near the tube and watched it turn into popcorn. What had happened is that just as the retina of our eyes is sensitive to visible light, water is sensitive to microwaves .
Inside food there are quite a few water molecules, which are structures with two poles at the ends, one positive and one negative. The microwaves are able to pull the poles of the polar molecules forcing them to move .
The direction in which microwaves pull molecules is 2,450,000,000 times per second; in this way they can transfer part of that energy through collisions with neighboring molecules. This mechanism will cause all the food to heat up by conduction .
The origin of cell phones dates back to World War II, when it was necessary to communicate remotely; Then the Motorola company developed the equipment called “Handie Talkie H12-16”, which allowed contact with the troops via radio waves .
In 1985 the new system began to be perfected to make it commercial. It only worked by creating honeycomb cells, which allowed the reuse of frequencies and thousands of people could use mobile phones at the same time.
