Comment by cwillu

10 hours ago

The feature size of the matte vs shiny sides are much smaller than the wavelength of the bulk of the radiated light in either a microwave or conventional oven.

> microwave or conventional oven

I worry for you if you're microwaving aluminum foil.

Is it? I can see the broiler glowing, so at least a decent chunk is close to visible light.

  • Look up the emission spectrum for a body at the temperature of a typical oven element: yes, it starts emitting some light that is visible, but the bulk of the energy is still in the IR band.