ow 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. |
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| Mode Mixer | Magnetron | Glass Tray |
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 glass tray 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 |
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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,
