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How Your Microwave Oven Works
Microwave ovens are safe. Microwave energy is
not hot. It causes food to make its own heat, and
it’s this heat that cooks the food.
Microwaves are like TV waves or light-waves.
You can’t see them but you can see what they
do.
Mod
netron
A mangnetron in the microwave oven produces
microwaves. The microwave move into the oven
where they are scattered or stirred by a mode
mixer (like a fan). Microwaves bounce off metal
oven walls and are absorbed by food.
Oven
cavity
Microwaves pass through glass, paper and
most plastics without heating them so food
absorbs the energy. Microwaves bounce off
metal pans so food does not absorb the energy.
Microwaves may not reach the center of a
roast. The heat around the outside is what cooks
the roast all the way through. This is one of the
reasons for letting some foods (roasts, baked
potatoes) stand for a while after cooking, or for
stirring some foods during the cooking time.
The microwaves disturb water molecules in the
food. As the molecules bounce around bumping
into each other, heat is made, like rubbing your
hands together. This is the heat that does the
cooking.
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