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If one lets an empty microwave running for about 10 minutes, just for the sake of the argument, is there any danger at stake? May the microwave damage itself, or destroy something around it?

EDIT: To further expand the question as David proposed:

There's a joke we use to tell a lot, it goes like, "I need to go home now, I just remembered I kept the microwave running", which is kind of a stupid reason, because:

  • a microwave has a timer, which when expires, it turns itself off automatically and there's no need to rush back home to turn it off
  • a running microwave should not do any harm to anything ? <- this is what I'm not sure about

I didn't want to provide this story as I believe it to be off-topic, but as I was asked to, I did now. I believe this question can be answered generally by physicists and I really see no reason for this to get closed, but whatever.

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I don't think this is quite a physics question as is; it's more of a question about microwaves. We're not qualified to tell you definitively whether it's safe to run an empty microwave or not ;-) I guess what would make it a better question is if you ask about the reason you think it might not be safe. For example, "If I run an empty microwave, will the radiation build up and explode?" or something like that - that's a question that physics can answer. If you can clarify the question like that, I'll be happy to reopen it. – David Zaslavsky♦ May 25 '11 at 1:23
By the way, ignore the "too localized" close reason - actually "off topic" would be more appropriate, but since this is an easy question to fix up I didn't want to give you the automatic downvote that comes with an OT closure. – David Zaslavsky♦ May 25 '11 at 1:24
um... well, the story doesn't make the question off topic, but it doesn't add anything useful either. Maybe we can hash this out in the chat room? – David Zaslavsky♦ May 25 '11 at 1:36

closed as too localized by David Zaslavsky♦ May 25 '11 at 1:19

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