A microwave oven is activated when an electric current causes a magnetron to emit a beam of microwaves. The beam is distributed throughout the unit by a rotating reflector. The microwaves agitate water molecules in the food, generating enough heat to cook it.
An antique (Latin: antiquus; old, ancient) is an old collectable item. It is collected or desirable because of its age, beauty, rarity, condition, utility, personal emotional connection, and/or other unique features. It is an object that represents a previous era or time period in human society. It is common practice to define antique as applying to objects at least 100 years old, Antiques are usually objects that show some degree of craftsmanshipâor a certain attention to design, such as a desk or an early automobile.
Since the defining moment went back about 100 years, the office defined an antique as something made over 100 years ago. Duty was collected on objects younger than the century-old divider, and it still is. The beauty of this definition is that it's so elastic, says Michael. As the years move forward, so does the cut-off date that delineates an antique. In a stroke of luck, the Customs Service ended up doing us all a favor, says Michael of the new industry standard. The one-hundred-year mark may be crude, but it's helpful. We tend to think in terms of centuries.