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.
Mode Mixer | Magnetron | Ceramic | Bottom |
Oven Cavity | Metal Floor |
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.
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.
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 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.
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,
