This will probably be the most random question you ever hear...seriously

[UW_Husky88]

My roommate put his TV on top of the microwave in my room, and I'm just wondering if I microwave something, could that potentially harm the TV in anyway?

 

[S H O W S T O P P E R !]

My roommate put his TV on top of the microwave in my room, and I'm just wondering if I microwave something, could that potentially harm the TV in anyway?

That is pretty random. But I really doubt it, unless you microwave blows up.

 

[counter_puncher]

Yes. The microwave emits microwave radiation, while the TV also receives microwave signals. The radiation from the microwave will interfer with the TV reception.

 

[RestockingTues]

I've never heard of a microwave killing a TV before... My microwave has killed my wireless network before though. I had no clue what happened until I checked my wireless router and my microwave; they both run at 2.4Ghz .

EDIT: On second though, I DO remember my microwave messing up the reception on my TV. We just bought one of those analog box whatchamacallits though and we haven't gotten any problems with reception since.

 

[retrowagen]

The magnatron in the microwave oven can interfere with an analogue television signal. Non-digital television signals are via radio waves, and the "microwaves" in the microwave oven are radio waves too, albeit confined (mostly) in a chamber for purposes of exciting the water molecules in the food or drink in the oven, which creates friction at a molecular level, and the friction creates the heat. However, the radio wavelengths used by the two devices are quite a bit different and shouldn't interfere with one another much; no worse than a TV interfering with an AM radio playing on top of it.

More often than not, though, it's the power hit the microwave makes on the house's electricity when it's on that will cause the electron gun in the TV to do some freaky things to the picture (as it can't quite get enough juice to do its thing full power). If these are plugged into the same outlet and on at the same time, it could cause the TV to have a slightly weird picture (fuzzy, grainy, or shimmery) and the oven to not work at full power.

 

[RestockingTues]

Retrowagon, you're amazing ! -bow-

 

[allez_mike]

The magnatron in the microwave oven can interfere with an analogue television signal. Non-digital television signals are via radio waves, and the "microwaves" in the microwave oven are radio waves too, albeit confined (mostly) in a chamber for purposes of exciting the water molecules in the food or drink in the oven, which creates friction at a molecular level, and the friction creates the heat. However, the radio wavelengths used by the two devices are quite a bit different and shouldn't interfere with one another much; no worse than a TV interfering with an AM radio playing on top of it.

More often than not, though, it's the power hit the microwave makes on the house's electricity when it's on that will cause the electron gun in the TV to do some freaky things to the picture (as it can't quite get enough juice to do its thing full power). If these are plugged into the same outlet and on at the same time, it could cause the TV to have a slightly weird picture (fuzzy, grainy, or shimmery) and the oven to not work at full power.

daaaaaaang, man. study much? haha

 

[retrowagen]

daaaaaaang, man. study much? haha

Ha ha, no not anymore. I'm an engineer in my upper 30's. Quit playing qualies and Opens and Satellites a long time ago to finish college, so I could get a real job and start making money!

It's just fun to figure out how things work.

 

[heycal]

My roommate put his TV on top of the microwave in my room, and I'm just wondering if I microwave something, could that potentially harm the TV in anyway?

You've worried about the wrong thing. If you put the TV on top on the microwave, the TV will be fine but food will start cooking funny. If you watch a show with a lot of cuts/movement -- such as an MTV video -- it will make things cook faster, and if you watch old black and white movies are half hour infomercials that move at a slower pace, it can increase cooking time by 28% percent (according to some studies.)

 

[jrod]

The magnatron in the microwave oven can interfere with an analogue television signal. Non-digital television signals are via radio waves, and the "microwaves" in the microwave oven are radio waves too, albeit confined (mostly) in a chamber for purposes of exciting the water molecules in the food or drink in the oven, which creates friction at a molecular level, and the friction creates the heat. However, the radio wavelengths used by the two devices are quite a bit different and shouldn't interfere with one another much; no worse than a TV interfering with an AM radio playing on top of it....

Correct. Microwave ovens do leak, some more than others. However, the Radio Frequency (RF) band that leaks the most power is in the 2-3 GHz band, whereas most broadcast TV signals (VHF) are transmitted below 100 MHz and UHF signals are transmitted between 400 MHz and 900 MHz. I doubt there are any sub-harmonics generated by the microwave oven that would interfere with the TV.

As one poster has already stated, if you happen to have a local WiFi (WLAN) access point operating in the unlicensed 2.4 GHz, then the microwave can interfere with the operation of the WiFi network. If you are worried about this there is a relatively simple test: cook some popcorn in the microwave at the same time you are streaming a video over your WiFi connection. The streaming can be interrupted when you start to cook the popcorn if your microwave is leaky(the delay to this occuring will depend on the video buffer length, but is usually less than 10 seconds). If the streaming is not interrupted, you don't have to worry about the microwave. Note the proximity of the microwave to the access point or your laptop is critical here. If you were to move your laptop right next to the microwave during this test, the streaming would likely be interrupted.

 

[SHRIEK]

The magnatron in the microwave oven can interfere with an analogue television signal. Non-digital television signals are via radio waves, and the "microwaves" in the microwave oven are radio waves too, albeit confined (mostly) in a chamber for purposes of exciting the water molecules in the food or drink in the oven, which creates friction at a molecular level, and the friction creates the heat. However, the radio wavelengths used by the two devices are quite a bit different and shouldn't interfere with one another much; no worse than a TV interfering with an AM radio playing on top of it.

More often than not, though, it's the power hit the microwave makes on the house's electricity when it's on that will cause the electron gun in the TV to do some freaky things to the picture (as it can't quite get enough juice to do its thing full power). If these are plugged into the same outlet and on at the same time, it could cause the TV to have a slightly weird picture (fuzzy, grainy, or shimmery) and the oven to not work at full power.

Wow!
Your smart!