1mo ago

Both "200" and "160" are 2 minutes in microwave math

101 comments

I'm not sure 160 is 2 minutes on my microwave.
- What happens when you type "1-6-0" on the time?
  
  It probably becomes 1m 60s. I've had microwaves do it both ways, either having it only be in seconds or having seconds for two digits.
  Edit: I'm dumb and very tired from Holidays, I'm leaving this up anyways though.
  
  I've absolutely done it before because I'm weird. Entering 1:90 (on my Kenmore microwave) ticks down 1:89... 1:88... etc. until it hits 1:00 at which point it will continue as normal to 0:59.
  1:60 behaves similarly.
  I have a feeling the "add 30 seconds" button will correct it to proper time format, but I'll test it for science.
  
  I dunno. I've never put in a time on my microwave - i just use the add button. Does it give you a minute and 60 seconds. Thats weird.
  
  I have an analog microwave from 2007. It just has a mechanical timer
- Chalk it up to a Christmas food coma cause I didn't catch that until you said it

There are moments when I miss the stupid useless awards from Reddit.
- Here you go .. it was given to me and now I'm giving it to you.
- I am so saving this for later
- Lemmy gold 🥇
- You mean here on Lemmy? I think they disabled them on reddit anyway.

Clearly shows that hours and minutes are messy units. The French Revolution fixed a lot of stupid problems, but decimal time just didn’t stick for some reason.
- Cannot say why decimal time didn't stick, but a similarly-proposed semi-decimal calendar with 12 months of 3 weeks each of 10 days was abandoned in France solely because Napoleon didn't like it.
  It was also designed to frustrate Sunday church attendance because Sundays being every seven days would usually fall on a weekday on a workweek based on a ten-day week. While Revolutionary France experimented with state atheism and then deism, it eventually returned to Catholicism.
  France spread its decimal measurements (the metre, gram, and litre) to the countries that Napoleon conquered or tried to conquer, but by that time, France was well beyond the "stamp out all semblance of religion" phase of its revolution, so a calendar designed with the intent to stifle religious attendance in mind was never going to stick very long once the French had left those territories. Besides, doing maths on length, volume, and mass is something that people do far more often than performing those calculations on dates. Sure, it would have made some things more convenient, but I'm guessing that for most people, the ten-day weeks just stuck out like a sore thumb.
  
  In normal everyday life, you rarely need to involve time in your calculations. In science and engineering you do, and that’s when you run into problems.
  When comparing two pumps, you run into issues like this. Which one is bigger: 29 m^3/h or 410 l/min. Doing calculations like that once or twice is recreational mathematics, but in a professional setting, these conversions are speed bumps standing in the way of getting stuff done.

my microwave has a wheel
- And if my grandma had wheels she’d have been a bicycle
  
  Everyone would get a ride
  
  My grandma had wheels. She had both a car, AND a walker.
- They all do, you put the food on it and it spins while its cooking.
  
  Mine has special patterns on the walls to distribute the waves so there's no need for a turntable. It's nice because there's extra space inside, plus no mechanism so it's super easy to clean.
  For like a full year after getting it, my brain would perceive a phantom rotation of whatever was in there, just because it had never seen a microwave without it.
- I used to have one like that as well, most baffling design decision I've ever seen
  Edit: Clarification:
  
  what?????? I have NEvER and I mean NEVER!!! seen a microwave with buttons EVER!!! in real life.
  
  I'm not down with all this fancy technology.
  My microwave has a dial and some cogs and that's about as far as I'm prepared to go. An added bonus is that I don't get blinded whenever walking into the kitchen in the middle of the night

Because 2:00 = 1:60
Or are we going to implement metric time?
- The French tried to, briefly.
- I get the 2:00, but shouldn't it be 120? Or am I dumber than I thought? 60+60 still = 120, right?
  
  1:60 = one minute and 60 seconds, or two minutes.
  120 would be parsed as one minute and 20 seconds, or 80 seconds.
  Took me a bit to get too.
  
  It's not 160 (seconds) it's 1 (minutes) **:**60 (seconds). My microwave always keeps the : when I input time.

Your microwave does math funny

Sub-Thought: I wonder how many people punch in “1:00” instead of “60”?
- Answer: not enough. Sub-sub-thought: of those people, how many open the door at 0:01 to avoid the bell?
  
  If they do that, they'd better fucking clear the timer.
  
  I'll only buy a microwave if it stops beeping when I open the door. So if I open it right as the timer finishes then it only does like half of one beep.
  Side note, the microwave also needs to go straight to time entry once I start pressing numbers. I've seen some stupid microwaves that you need to press a Time Cook button before the numbers or it will assume you are using its preset cook settings like "pizza" or "soup".
- +30s button, twice

Microwave UIs suck so bad. I've yet to find an improvement on the classic two analog knobs system, where one controls power and the other sets time.
- That actually sounds lit I didn't know that existed
  
  That is how the first ones (that I saw) worked. I was so happy when I saw that not only do they still exist, my local grocery store started selling them. I bought my second one a few days ago.
- Mine has a button to cycle between 5 power levels, a knob for time, and the start button is also a 30 second button. It's perfect

To save time on things that need to be microwaved for 1:30, I just hit 90 then start. Saves 1 button click.
- The fastest way to get one minute on a microwave is to press the "add 30 seconds" button twice
  
  I didn’t realize I was so spoiled. On mine, the 1, 2, and 3 buttons add 1-3 minutes, respectively. And I don’t have to hit start either. I want a minute I press 1, done. 90 seconds would be 1 and +30, two button presses.
  
  Rest of time savings can be achieved by practicing 30 minutes per day
- More efficient to enter 99 seconds, to save time moving your finger from the 9 to the 0.

"9999" equals 1 hour, 40 mins, and 39 seconds

I don't think you can even input :60 except as in 2 presses of [+30 seconds]
- Had a friend who got a microwave that instead of a numpad it had a dial like a volume knob. It was so irritating for some reason to twist it and then have to turn it the opposite way to correct it. Like you wanted 45 seconds and you'd twist and it's be at 1:30, youd scroll back, 35... 50, fuck it good enough. I just would twist it to a number and then stop it 45 seconds in after I realized it was that way
  
  Every microwave I've ever lived with has had a knob to input time. Maybe this is a regional thing?
  My old one was completely analog and just had dials for time and power and a single button to open the door. Truly an efficient interface!
- Huh, all of mine since I was a kid have taken numbers up to 99 in seconds. Gotta admit I've never tried x60-x99
  I regularly use 55 or 66 instead of just hitting start 2x which does the 30 second thing because it's so ingrained.
  And 44 seconds is known as an Obama, 33 a Truman, 22 a Cleveland, and 11 a Polk.
  Pressing more than one number is sacrilege. and 45 is treasonous.
  
  And 44 seconds is known as an Obama, 33 a Truman, 22 a Cleveland, and 11 a Polk.
  Pressing more than one number is sacrilege. and 45 is treasonous.
  This should be codified
- What? Of course you can... At least on every microwave I've ever had.

Meanwhile, to heat up some chicken gently for my mutt it's
Power power power power power power power start one zero zero start.
(one minute at 500 watts)
I miss my Akai at home with its memory button.
- Every microwave I've had, you hit the power button then the number corresponding to the power level you want.
  
  Really? Every microwave I’ve had you hit a number and it’s cooks your food for that many minutes. No power option, but you can set it prior to heating your food.

Isn’t 159 faster
- +30s +30s +30s +30s
  My microwave doesn't have speed cook, so this is the fastest way to get 2m on the clock
  
  You guys are getting buttons?
  My Japanese microwave only has an imprecise knob to turn. It came free with the apartment, so I can't complain too much.
  I suppose it prevents people from accidentally doing something like hitting 20:00 instead of 2:00 and starting a fire.
  
  2 + 0 + 0 + start for me on every microwave I've ever owned.