How does a microwave cook food?

Excited water molecules The microwaves excite water molecules in food and causes food to heat up. This is why microwavable containers don't get hot. The water content is very low, while non-microwavable containers can get hot or even break because of water in the manufacturing process..

Pam is waaaaay off Microwaves are far shorter than infrared. WAAAAy shorter. They cook by friction, not by radiation: To illustrate this third characteristic, notice the cooked turkey below.

The waves of microwave energy are cycling above and below a horizontal baseline. The half cycle below the baseline possesses negative properties, and the half cycle above the line is correspondingly positive. Basically, the effect of this wave, as it alternates between positive and negative, would be like a magnet flipping back and forth.

All liquids and food products, such as this turkey, are made up of molecules. These molecules have positive and negative particles, so they tend to behave like microscopic magnets. As the positive half cycle of the microwave penetrates the food, the negative particles of the molecules are attracted and attempt to align themselves with this positive field of energy.

Then, when the microwave energy alternates to the negative half cycle, the opposite occurs -- The negative particles are repelled and the positive particles are attracted, causing a flipping motion (actually, this reaction is the movement of the particles within each molecule, so, technically, they reverse polarity). This might be compared to a room full of people trying to run back and forth, from one side to the other. Obviously, there would be a lot of bumping, rubbing, agitation, and friction.

Now, consider that the actual frequency of the RF energy used in microwave ovens is 2450 million cycles per second! Moreover, consider that within the course of one of those cycles, the molecules would actually change their direction (polarity) twice - once for the positive half-cycle and once for the negative half-cycle. This red-hot rate of vibration causes tremendous friction within the food, and - just as rubbing your hands together makes them warm - this friction produces heat.So the heat is produced directly in the food, but the food is not cooked, as is commonly believed, from the inside out.

Actually, the cooking begins just beneath the outer surface and from there inward and outward, with the majority of the energy being expended in the outer layers. The rate and degree of heating depend on the depth and density of the food, as well as its ability to conduct heat. Because the microwave energy is changed to heat as soon as it is absorbed by the food, it cannot make the food radioactive or contaminated.

When the microwave energy is turned off and the food is removed from the oven, there is no residual radiation remaining in the food. In this regard, a microwave oven is much like and electric light that stops glowing when it is turned off. Sources: gallawa.com/microtech/howcook.html, thesecretsofeden.com .

By vibrating (with the microwave radiation) the molecules in the food. Movement = friction. Friction = heat.

Unfortunately, another thing friction does is scratch your glass.

1 In a sense, the same way a regular oven does: it emits electromagnetic waves that are absorbed by the food. A regular oven does it with infrared radiation. Microwaves have longer wavelength than infrared.

That lets it penetrate more deeply into food, cooking it more quickly. Some molecules are "clear" to microwaves, the same way windows are transparent to light, but water in particular absorbs microwaves. Most foods contain water and the energy they absorb is transmitted to the other molecules.

I've oversimplified a fair bit here (I left out the heating of the air, and conduction, and the way the penetration of microwaves prevents surface browning) but that's the gist.

In a sense, the same way a regular oven does: it emits electromagnetic waves that are absorbed by the food. A regular oven does it with infrared radiation. Microwaves have longer wavelength than infrared.

That lets it penetrate more deeply into food, cooking it more quickly. Some molecules are "clear" to microwaves, the same way windows are transparent to light, but water in particular absorbs microwaves. Most foods contain water and the energy they absorb is transmitted to the other molecules.

I've oversimplified a fair bit here (I left out the heating of the air, and conduction, and the way the penetration of microwaves prevents surface browning) but that's the gist.

2 it uses radar to locate and destroy food particles placed inside the chamber :D(Pam pretty much summed it up) .

It uses radar to locate and destroy food particles placed inside the chamber :D(Pam pretty much summed it up).

A microwave oven emits radio waves at frequencies that cause various molecules (especially water) to vibrate; it can also effect sugar and fat molecules. When they vibrate, they generate heat, and that cooks the food Microwaves, as the name implies, are VERY short-length waves. The radiation is NOT nuclear radiation (which is from the breakdown of the nucleus of an atom), but is simply a very high frequency on the electromagnetic spectrum.

Www.gallawa. Com/microtech/how_work. Htm… - Cached How Does a Microwave Work?

| eHow.com www.ehow.com/how-does_4568929_a-microw… - Cached How a Microwave Works www.ehow.com/how-does_4882867_how-micr… - Cached HowStuffWorks "Introduction to How Microwave Cooking Works" home.howstuffworks. Com/microwave - Cached How does the microwave oven work - wiki.answers.Com/Q/How_does_the_microw… - Cached Microwave oven - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia en.wikipedia. Org/wiki/Microwave_oven - Cached.

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As far as I'm concerned...it's heat it created by sexual activity of tiny elves within its walls. More heat required means more sex, and therefore I use the microwave frequently so those elves can continue hooking up! :).

A microwave works by emitting radio waves which heat the food.

It creates friction between the molecules of the food until it heats and cooks. Something like that anyway.

It just blasts the food with a very high heat to cook it through - only some foods can be cooked like this.

Spit out radiation thru a gun. Radiation heats the food in a small amount of time.

Radiation... which is not the best way to cook food according to my science teacher...

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.