system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Why does my microwave interrupt my wireless internet?

I ask this question for a couple of reasons.  First, I assumed my Wireless-G/N home networking would run on a wavelength that wouldn't be on the same wavelength as a microwave and that my wireless network could identify data vs noise.

Second, I assumed my microwave is shielded and not emitting radiation into my home.  My microwave is approximately 10 feet away from my wireless router (kitchen is back-to-back with my living room) and when the microwave is turned on, my ping goes from 50-80 milliseconds to 500 with a significant packet loss.
gpt
A few points need to be made:

1. Microwave ovens do not operate at exactly one frequency. They are designed (and required by the FCC) to operate *near* 2.45 GHz, but the radiation created by the microwave oven typically involves frequencies spanning between 2.4 and 2.5 GHz. You have to realize that a microwave oven is not a monochromatic source like a laser or a radio antenna. It is a broadband source. Furthermore, it is an *unstable* broadband source, meaning that the frequencies emitted by the microwave oven changes from one microsecond to the next. In fact, the exact frequency spectrum of the EM waves in the oven even depends on what you are cooking and how the food is oriented. 

2. Many wireless routers operate at 2.4 GHz and therefore indeed experience interference from microwave ovens. 

3. To some extent, digital processing can separate out the data from the noise. But if your signal-to-noise ratio gets too low, you can't separate them anymore because the noise is so strong that it essentially makes the data negligible.

4. Microwaves *are* shielded, so that most of the radiation stays contained in the microwave cavity. This is a good thing, because otherwise you would be heating your room instead of your food. But no type of shielding blocks exactly 100% of the EM waves. Waves have a tendency to tunnel through barriers. The thinner the barrier, the more the EM waves can tunnel through. The shielding on a microwave oven is thick enough to contain most of the microwaves, but still lets some through. Making the shielding 10 feet thick would indeed contain more of the microwaves, but would make the appliance less useful. So, some microwaves do indeed leak through the shielding and interfere with the wireless router.