You know you're a nerd when..

In our office it is customary to bring packed lunch, which you usually have to heat up in the microwave oven first before eating.  Naturally sometimes you have to queue up to use the microwave. So sometimes people share.

And each and every time I see this, I wonder: Does the food heat less if there's other food inside the oven?

Come to think of it, yes! I would assume that given the same power and time setting, the microwave oven will output the same amount of energy regardless of the load (that is, the amount of food inside), so by the law of conservation of energy, the larger amount of food would heat less because it needs more energy to heat up!

Well, that's unless the microwave is intelligent enough to measure the amount of load first, and then adjust its output energy accordingly..hmm..