If your pizza is totally frozen or served on a metal plate, you might want to know why it either is working very slowly or is blowing up the house. :)

The only reason you know not to put metal in the microwave is exactly because of 60 years of manuals. It's common knowledge now. You bet they talked about radiation and how a magnetron works in a microwave back the 60s.

Some of the 60 years worth of manuals get forgotten along the way. That's why you'll sometimes run into people who think you can protect your food from radiation by covering the food with a paper or plastic cover.

Or people who avoid microwaves because of radiation poisoning.

Maybe there's like a compromise where every X number of years, a product will come with a hefty manual which doesn't assume knowledge and starts at the basics as a refresher of sorts.

Cell phones, microwaves, light bulbs, plastic containers.

Actually, what I want more than anything to ship with thick manuals is skincare products. I have these more high end skincare products that came as a set and, let's be honest it was likely a waste of money. But I got it for the "experience," y'know?

Anyway, none of the products tell me how to use them. They don't tell me what order to use them in. They don't tell me how often to use them.

These are all things that you know if you're a girl and you don't know if you're a guy because, like you said, there are years worth of manuals--I just skipped those "lectures."

Do people think covering with paper or plastic helps block radiation? Pretty sure people so this to keep the microwave clean...

Yeah it's often for keeping the microwave clean but my mom is an example of someone that thinks it also blocks radiation.

It's not as common as other microwave myths but it's a thing.

“Don’t put metal into the microwave” requires neither a thick manual nor theoretical underpinnings of electromagnetism. It requires a warning sticker.

Incidentally, there are types of metal dishes that can go into the microwave and yet most people today don’t know that, probably because nobody actually read the manuals, just the warning stickers.

I am by no means against understanding the theory behind what you are doing. My degree is in physics for a reason. But the “older is better” adage is tiring. I guarantee you that most people didn’t read the 200 page manual for their microwave oven and neither would most people today.