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 without heating them so food absorbs the energy. Microwaves bounce off metal pans so food does not absorb the energy
A magnetron in the microwave oven pro- duces 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.
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 ceramic bottom of your microwave oven lets microwaves through. Then they bounce off a metal floor, back through the ceramic bottom and are absorbed by the food.
The microwaves dis- turb 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 cooks.
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