How your microwave oven works
Mtcrowave | ovens | are | safe | Microwave | energy | IS not hot | It causes | ||
heat, and | It’s this | heat | that | cooks | the food |
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| Mode | Mixer |
| Magnetron |
Oven Cavity
food to make Its own
Ceramic Bottom
Metal’Floor
Mrcrowaves are like TV waves or light waves you can’t see them but you can see what they do
Microwaves | pass | through |
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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 |
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A magnetron In the mrcro-
wave oven produces mrcro- waves The microwaves
move into the oven where
they are scattered or stirred by a mode mrxer (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 outstde IS what cooks the roast all the way
through This IS one of the rea- sons for IeHing some foods (roasts. baked potatoes)
stand for a while after cook- ing, or for stirring some foods
during the ccoking time
The ceramic bottom of your
mlcrowave oven lets mrcro-
waves through Then they
bounce off a metal floor, back through the ceramic bottom and are absorbed by the food
The | microwaves | drsturb |
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water | molecules | in | the | food | ||
As | the | molecules | bounce |
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around | bumping | into each | ||||
other, | heat | is made, | like | rub- | ||
Ding | your | hands | together |
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This | is the | heat | that | cooks. | ||
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