microwaves

08/06/2025

something about the naming of the microwave oven

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while sitting through a lecture for communication systems, i began thinking about interference in data transmission.

before my home wifi router was replaced, the internet would lag or fail whenever the microwave oven was in use. i never really stopped to think about it, but interference meant that the wi-fi and microwave oven must be using some of the same frequencies.

sure enough, microwaves operate at 2.45 GHz which is right next to the wifi's operating frequency band of 2.4 GHz (at that time).

09-08-25 addendum

wifi operates over a range of frequency values, not just one. for example, 2.4 GHz wifi uses a range that starts at 2.4 GHz and ends around 2.48 GHz. the microwave oven's frequency (2.45 GHz) falls within this band, thus causing interference.

wait, so if microwaves operate at 2.45 GHz, that means they have a wavelength of something in the centimeters range since

then why are microwave ovens called that if they don't use waves in the micro-meter (μm) region?

it turns out that "microwave" really refers to the oven's operating wavelength being relatively small compared to the wavelength that radios were using at the time that microwaves were invented.

the more you know, lol.