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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 cannot see them, but you can
see what they do.
A magnetron in the microwave oven pro-
duces microwaves. The microwaves move
into the oven where they contact food as it
turns on the glass turntable.
Oven cavity
The glass turntable of your microwave oven
lets microwaves pass through. Then they
bounce off a metal floor, back through the
glass turntable, and are absorbed by the
food.
Microwaves pass through most glass, paper
and 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.
Metal floor’ Glau skmtable
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