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How Your Microwave Oven Works
Mode mixer
Magnetron
Oven cavity
Ceramic bottom
Metal floor
40
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.
A magnetron in the microwave oven
produces microwaves. The microwaves
move into the oven where they are scat-
tered 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 micro-
wave oven lets microwaves through.
Then they bounce off a metal floor, back
through the ceramic bottom and are
absorbed by the food.
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 cook-
ing, or for stirring some foods during the
cooking time.
The microwaves disturb water mole-
cules 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
cooks.