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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.
c
Microwaves are like TV
waves or light waves. You
can’t see them, but you can
see what they do.
Microwaves pass through
glass, paper and plastic with-
out heating them so food ab-
sorbs the energy. Microwaves
bounce off metal pans so
food does not absorb the
energy.
Mode Mixer Magnetron
Ceramic Bottom
Oven Cavity
Metal Floor
A magnetron in the micro-
wave oven produces micro-
waves The microwaves
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.
The ceramic bottom of your
microwave oven lets micro-
waves through. Then they
bounce off a metal floor,
back through the ceramic
bottom and are absorbed
by the food.
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 rea-
sons for letting some foods
(roasts, baked potatoes)
stand for a while after cook-
ing, 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 rub-
bing your hands together.
This is the heat that cooks.
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